Elihu Root Quotes

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country.

We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.

You help us pay for the war we’ll fight; we’ll launch it while you’re asleep at night. We don’t need friends all around the world; We’ll buy our friends with our flag unfurled, And spread our arms on a global scale To show the world that we still prevail. Oh, we’re not leaders inspiring peace, But we’re in power as the world’s police. So pay your tax for our little war, And we’ll not ask for any more. This year!

To Perpetual Peace

War is no longer made by simply analyzed economic forces if it ever was. War is made or planned now by individual men, demagogues and dictators who play on the patriotism of their people to mislead them into a belief in the great fallacy of war when all their vaunted reforms have failed to satisfy the people they misrule.

There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders.

But I feel convinced, and I venture even to prophesy in this regard, that the time will come when there will also be a minister of peace in the cabinet, seated beside the ministers of war.

Democracies are poor breeding grounds for terrorism and war.

I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.

Most of wars or military coups or invasions are done in the name of democracy against democracy.

I believe that democracies do not go to war; that's the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community's best guarantee of stability in Asia.

There are a growing number of conservatives and Republicans who, while they support the president and support the war in Iraq, wonder how many of these nation-building wars we're going to engage in and what the parameters of that are.

His Imperial Highness, the Czar of All the Russias, has issued a manifesto in favor of universal disarmament …. whatever seriousness there is in his latest pronouncement may be translated into an appeal to his brother despots throughout Europe to cease warring with each other in order that their hands may be free to throttle the infant liberty in their own dominions.

Neutrality is not like a simple mathematical formula which has only to be announced and demonstrated in order to be believed and respected. It has in fact always been one of the difficult problems …. Instead of earning the respect and goodwill of both belligerents it is regarded by both with hatred and contempt.

Do not listen to those who set up doctrines which are dangerous to the peace of the world.

There is not a conceivable enemy unless we create it, not a nation that would fight us if it could.

Whenever peace—conceived as the avoidance of war—has been the primary objective of a power or group of powers, the international system has been at the mercy of the most ruthless member of the international community.

Our country is being bled daily in an effort to create a democracy in a place where it never existed.

Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them.

I have never met anyone who wasn't against war. Even Hitler and Mussolini were, according to themselves.

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

To win the War, to overcome the enemy upon the fields cannot alone ensure the Victory in Peace. The cause of War must be removed. Each Nation's rights must be secure from violation. Above all, from the human mind must be erased all thoughts of War as a solution. Then and then only will War cease.