Isaac Asimov Quotes

Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. The very prevention of war requires more faith, courage and resolution than are needed to prepare for war. We must all do our share, that we may be equal to the task of peace.

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it. Prevention must be our overriding objective. It can be done. Surrendering to the inevitability of combat only paves the way for its occurring.

Indeed, we're strongest when the face of America isn't only a soldier carrying a gun but also a diplomat negotiating peace, a Peace Corps volunteer bringing clean water to a village, or a relief worker stepping off a cargo plane as floodwaters rise.

A peaceful world requires collective measures for the prevention of war, international cooperation to solve economic and social problems, and respect for human rights.

At the beginning of this century, people never questioned the effectiveness of war, never thought there could be real peace. Now, people are tired of war and see it as ineffective in solving anything.

You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time.

You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance-guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!

The way to prevent war is to bend every energy toward preventing it, not to proceed by the dubious indirection of preparing for it.

One of the most persistent ambiguities that we face is that everybody talks about peace as a goal. However, it does not take sharpest-eyed sophistication to discern that while everbody talks about peace, peace has become practically nobody's business among the power-wielders. Many men cry Peace! Peace! but they refuse to do the things that make for peace.

The power of making war often prevents it.

Peace is hard work and we must not allow people to forget it.

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

All conflicts can be resolved. Wars and conflicts are not inevitable. They are caused by human beings. There are always interests that are furthered by war. Therefore those who have power and influence can also stop them. Peace is a question of will.

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

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

More than just an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.

War is pillage versus resistance and if illusions of magnitude could be transmuted into ideals of magnanimity, peace might be realized.

Our primary objective must be to prevent wars, and when we fail in this, we must protect and assist the innocent victims.

War is a racket. It always has been... A few profit - and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn't it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?

To many, peace is what enables development and is critical in providing opportunities to young people. To some - especially those from regions involved in conflict - peacekeeping and efforts to preserve peace are absolutely vital in bringing prosperity and hope for the future.

The primary, the fundamental, the essential purpose of the United Nations is to keep peace. Everything it does which helps prevent World War III is good. Everything which does not further that goal, either directly or indirectly, is at best superfluous.

We have to develop preventive diplomacy.

This organization [the United Nations] is created to prevent you from going to hell. It isn't created to take you to heaven.