“Hell and damnation, life is such fun with a ragged greatcoat and a Jerry gun!”
“I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul.”
“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.”
“We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name.”
“Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”
“War is not a life: it is a situation, one which may neither be ignored nor accepted.”
“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”
“To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.”
“The pioneers of a warless world are the young men and women who refuse military service.”
“O can't you see, brother -- Death's a congested road for fighters now, and hero a cheap label.”
“The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.”
“The real trouble with war (modern war) is that it gives no one a chance to kill the right people.”
“War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.”
“Of course in war all madnesses come out in a man, that is the fault of war not of a man or a nation.”
“It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only twenty seconds of war to destroy him.”
“There are two things which will always be very difficult for a democratic nation: to start a war and to end it.”
“The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.”
“Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry.”
“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”
“War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.”
“I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”
“A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.”
“What we believe is more important than our material existence, therefore warfare is a legitimate extension of values.”
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
“The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.”
“How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.”
“To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.”
“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.”
“I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.”
“I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.”