Immanuel Kant Quotes

Costa Rica was the first country in history to abolish its army and declare peace with the world. It’s children have never known military service. They have never seen the shadow of an armored helicopter or the tracks of a tank. And since the abolition of its armed forces 62 years ago, Costa Rica has never suffered a Coup.

If the world is disarmed, and remains disarmed, there will be no more world wars.

The popular, and one may say naive, idea is that peace can be secured by disarmament and that disarmament must therefore precede the attainment of absolute security and lasting peace.

The goal [of disarmament] is no longer a dream. It is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race...

Disarmament offers the only effective way to bring militarism under control.

War, which remains an anomaly in a civilized world, has taken on so devastating and universal a character...that every thought and every effort should be aimed, above all, at making it impossible.

There is a widespread understanding among the people of this nation, and probably among the people of the world, that there is no safety except through the prevention of war.

We want a rocket-free country. That’s what we want.

We demand a strict and sweeping reduction of armaments by land and sea so that there shall be no competitive military program or naval building. Until agreements to this end have been made we advocate an army and navy adequate for our national safety.

There is an urgent need for disarmament of all kinds, but especially nuclear disarmament.

The best missile defense system of all would be a just and lasting peace.

Controlled, universal disarmament is the imperative of our time. The demand for it by the hundreds of millions whose chief concern is the long future of themselves and their children will, I hope, become so universal and so insistent that no man, no government anywhere, can withstand it.

I am not one of those who believe that a great standing army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.

I think that is a noble goal that all of us should seek, to end wars and prevent wars as much as possible.

I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it.

One cannot abolish only a single weapon, but only war as a whole.

Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we know it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking... Never before was it possible for one nation to make war on another without sending armies across borders. Now with rockets and atomic bombs no center of population on the earth's surface is secure from surprise destruction in a single attack.... We cannot leave it to generals, senators, and diplomats to work out a solution over a period of generations… There is no defense in science against the weapon which can destroy civilization. Our defense is not in armaments, nor in science, nor in going underground. Our defense is in law and order… Future thinking must prevent wars.

Security provided by peace treaties is preferable to security enforced by troops.

Wars are most often won by those who have made the greatest effort to prevent them.

Disarmament of itself does not produce peace or security. Only removing the source of conflict does.

The main aim of any American President is to prevent World War III.

Mexico no longer has an army.

Moral disarmament is to safeguard the future; material disarmament is to save for the present, that there may be a future to safeguard.

The Mutual Security Act was intended not to fight a war but to prevent a war.

If the history of the past fifty years teaches us anything, it is that peace does not follow disarmament -- disarmament follows peace.