Andy Rooney Quotes

I hate to say it, but I had a great time in World War II.

In modern war... you will die like a dog for no good reason.

A riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning.

This system, built on free markets, free trade and free peoples and American protection, that's what got us from the end of World War II to the extraordinary events of the end of the Cold War and a system that was one of prosperity and peace for a lot of people, including for the United States.

You get World Peace through Inner Peace. If you've got a world full of people who have Inner Peace, then you have a Peaceful World.

The American Revolution was a small part of a major world war going on between France and England, so the French intervened and that was a big factor, but the domestic contribution was basically guerrilla warfare.

We have an interest in combating tactics in war that are abhorrent and that only fuel terrorism because they incite people on the ground.

The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.

It is a tough choice. In war, people die. But when we refuse to confront the enemy, we will face the enemy in New York and Washington, as we did on 9-11. As for responsiblity, of course we stand by our decision to go to war on Iraq. President Kennedy said that friend and foe alike should know where America stands.

There are a lot of people who say that bombing cannot win the war. My reply to that is that it has never been tried. . . and we shall see.

World War II synchronizes things for a lot of people. There's a kind of wakeup call.

I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on, no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case of musterd gas - the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great musterd coloured suppurating blisters, with blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying their throats are closing and they know they will choke.

I would have fought in WW2, so I wasn't a pacifist in the broader sense. I prefer to be a pacifist, but I think there are exceptions and times to defend yourself or your country, but that war wasn't one of them.

I've had my fill of Hitler. These conferences called by the ringing of a bell are not to my liking. The bell is rung when people call their servants. And besides, what kind of conferences are these? For five hours I am forced to listen to a monologue which is quite fruitless and boring

The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.

We were lavish of blood in those days, and it was thought to be a grand thing to charge a battery or an earth-work lined with infantry.

The true lesson of the Vietnam War is: certainty of purpose and ruthlessness of execution win wars.

I had wanted to make a film about World War II for some time, but I didn't really want to do something that was set in the trenches, so to speak.

One who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage will not attain it.

If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.

Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it's worth: If you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place.

The aggressive spirit, the offensive, is the chief thing everywhere in war, and the air is no exception.

Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars.

When all is said and done, and statesmen discuss the future of the world, the fact remains that people fight these wars.