Carl von Ossietzky Quotes

Moreover, war has become a thing potentially so terrible and destructive that it should have been the common aim of statesmen to put an end to it forever.

War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war.

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

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.

Nobel was a genuine friend of peace. He even went so far as to believe that he had invented a tool of destruction, dynamite, which would make war so senseless that it would become impossible. He was wrong.

As someone who has seen war first hand, and as a father of three young adults, it was my hope that we could have resolved this conflict and disarmed Saddam Hussein without war. However, this was not the case.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

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.

If it's radical to want an end to war and an end to violence, so that we can devote ourselves to the challenges of peace, then I'm pleased to call myself a radical.

Peace will never be won if men reserve for war their greatest efforts.

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

You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war.

In this age there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war. We must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint.

I have done all I can to prevent wars. All my life I've been dedicated to preventing just what has happened today.

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.

This is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery. It is also a time for facing the fact that you cannot use a weapon, even though it is the weapon that gives you greater strength than other nations, if it is so destructive that it practically wipes out large areas of land and great numbers of innocent people.

Although war cannot be ended, wars can.

How is it that nations composed of people who don't want war are continually fighting?" The answer is that the opinion against war has been without adequate institutions to give it effect. War is an international affair; and to prevent it there must be international opinion, and international action upon that opinion, and international institutions to give effect to that opinion.

We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

I am, on principle, opposed to war and in favor of peace because I regard peace as a positive good and war as a positive evil.

We all say no to war, we are all for justice and peace. But sometimes in order to maintain peace, armed action is necessary. But we hope it won't be the case.

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.

I know of no more important subject to the peace of Europe and the world than the reasonable reduction of armaments, especially in Europe, and of naval armaments throughout the world.