Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.
—William Cecil, Lord Burghley, c. 1555
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Quotes
A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69I went [to war] because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.
—Louisa May Alcott, 1863Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
—Winston Churchill, 1939I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. War is hell.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1879War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
—Leon TrotskyWar to the castles; peace to the cottages.
—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938The fear of war is worse than war itself.
—Seneca, c. 50I detest war. It spoils armies.
—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820