Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew.

I know of nothing more exciting than war.

I have much to teach you. Come and learn the art of war from the one who invented it. (Takeshi)

Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than of war.

Mankind has had ten-thousand years of experience at fighting and if we must fight, we have no excuse for not fighting well.

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.

In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.

War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.

War is the science of destruction.

There's no better way to test a person than to put them in the middle of a war. That's clearly going to show what kind of a character you're telling a story about.

In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes.

Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.

War is the trade of Kings.

In strife who inquires whether stratagem or courage was used?

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

To be a soldier one needs that special gene, that extra something, that enables a person to jump into one on one combat, something, after all, that is unimaginable to most of us, as we are simply not brave enough.

Who asks whether the enemy was defeated by strategy or valor?

I'm glad I never went to war.

In the light of the actual fighting that is now in progress, we have reached the point where the military considerations clearly outweigh the fiscal considerations.

You do have to change things as warfare changes.

War is fear cloaked in courage.

Nothing like war reveals man in the same strength—their courage, their stupidity, their fears, their hopes, their ugliness ….

Food is as important to armies as ammunition—but more important than either is an unfailing supply of lies. You simply cannot murder your enemy in the most efficient manner if you know he is in every essential the same kind of a man as yourself.

All men who feel any power of joy in battle know what it is like when the wolf rises in the heart.

I shall hurl the first spear at the foe. If any man can stand at rest while Attila fights, he is a dead man.