Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

One should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for wars cannot be avoided and can only be deferred to the advantage of others.

Throughout my career, I learned plenty about war on the battlefield, but I learned even more about the importance of finding peace. And that is what the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. do: prevent the wars that we can avoid so that we fight only the ones we must.

We know how to win wars. We must learn now to win peace.

This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.War is god.

Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace. It must be kept by men.

We should wage war not to win war, but to win peace.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

There are consequences if you act militarily, and there's big consequences if you don't act.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

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

All wars are mishandled.

Military action without political context is ineffective.

I know I will be severely criticized by the interventionists in America when I say we should not enter a war unless we have a reasonable chance of winning.

I've always been interested in the politics of war. War is one of those things that, the longer I studied it, the more illogical it seemed.

If there is one path above all others to war, it is the path of weakness and disunity.

If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

Wars happen because the ones who start them think they can win.

We always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's.

Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict mankind... Any scourge is preferable to it.

Aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war.

We go to war only to make peace. We never went to war with any other design. We carry the national conscience wherever we go.

The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.