William S. Burroughs Quotes

It is idle to say that nations can struggle to outdo each other in building armaments and never use them. History demonstrates the contrary, and we have but to go back to the last war to see the appalling effect of nations competing in great armaments.

We pacifists have not ceased to point to the grave danger of armaments and to insist on their curtailment.

In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war.

The history of our civilization has been one of intermittent war.

We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace.

May the same Almighty Goodness banish the accursed monster, war, from all lands, with her hated associates, rapine and insatiable ambition!

The situation is extraordinary. It is militarism run stark mad. Unless someone acting for you can bring about a different understanding there is some day to be an awful cataclysm.

There are worse things than war.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

War is the trade of Kings.

We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

Either war is obsolete, or men are.

Now, I believe that war is never inevitable until it starts, but there has been a great proclivity in human history, and including in recent history, for war.

I suspect that war will become obsolete only when something worse supercedes it.

Even today we raise our hand against our brother... We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves as if it were normal we continue to sow destruction, pain, death. Violence and war lead only to death.

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

War is the greatest failure of mankind.

If we don't end war, war will end us.

Like individuals, some peoples are naturally pacific and some naturally aggressive.

Any idea that you can have a league for security is nuts, and all people who favor it are potential murderers… as long as man is man, there will be war and the only way to avoid trouble is to have the best army and navy, which we now have.

The belief that war is inevitable makes of war a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders.

A war with Pakistan would be an utter disaster.