Saint Augustine Quotes

War is the supreme form of prestige.

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never solves anything, I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.

Resort to force in the Great War (I) failed to bring tranquillity. Victory and defeat alike were sterile. That lesson the world should have learned.

Der Krieg ist nichts als eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel. War is merely the continuation of policy with the admixture of other means.

Guns don't win wars; guns and bombs may kill a man but they cannot make him follow their lead, nor will they ever coerce an unyielding man to yield.

War is only caused through the political intercourse of governments and nations - war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means.

For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

War is a series of disasters which result in a winner.

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

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

War is always an option. Peace is not.

To make peace, it is necessary to know how to make war.

Without armaments peace cannot be kept; wars are waged not only to repel injustice but also to establish a firm peace.

Armies for the preservation of peace do not exist; they exist only for the triumphant exertion of 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.

War is about remaking the world to suit the whims of some powerful group over the whims of some other powerful group. The dead are just the sparks that fly from the metal as they grind it down.

It was an old lesson learned by governments: that war solves problems of control.

The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

A conqueror is always a lover of peace.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

It is far easier to make war than peace.

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