J. F. C. Fuller Quotes

Wars are caused by undefended wealth.

… a visceral fear of appeasement has led to entirely avoidable disasters

When you elect chicken hawks, chicken hawks take you to war.

You want Paradise, you gotta build it on war, on blood, on envy and naked greed.

The greatest threat to our world and its peace comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or by instilling fear of foreign aggression, try to make us accomplices to their plans.

What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.

War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.

War,--the trade of barbarians!

The root of war is fear.

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there's the business of war.

War is merely a continuation of politics.

War, hate, jealousy, racism - what are they but manifestations of fear?

Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by war.

What are they going to do, shoot me? It's not war you know.

People who are anxious to bring on war don't know what they are bargaining for; they don't see all the horrors that must accompany such an event.

Many causes produce war. There are ancient hatreds, turbulent frontiers, the "legacy of old forgotten, far-off things, and battles long ago." There are new-born fanaticisms. Convictions on the part of certain peoples that they have become the unique depositories of ultimate truth and right.

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.

War is elective. It is not an inevitable state of affairs. War is not the weather.

War provides an outlet for every evil element in man's nature. It enfranchises cupidity and greed gives a charter to petty tyranny, glorifies cruelty and places in positions of power the vulgar and base.

Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me; but if I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force, I should feel that it must be resisted.

Is there any man here or any woman, let me say is there any child here, who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?

War knows no law except that of might.

After a lifetime of war-watching, I see war as an endemic human disease, and governments are the carriers.

jewels have played a colorful part in the evolution of world affairs. Because precious stones tend to inspire both admiration and greed, leaders have found convenient excuses for seeking them and have used them to impress crowds, reward friends, deprive foes, forge alliances, and justify war. Jewels may find their highest expression in the decorative arts, but they have also earned a place in the art of the possible.

But all history has taught us the grim lesson that no nation has ever been successful in avoiding the terrors of war by refusing to defend its rights - by attempting to placate aggression.