Armament Quotes

• Militarism is basically a way of thinking, a certain interpretation of the function of the state; this manner of thinking is, moreover, revealed by its outer forms: by armaments and state organization.

  Christian Lous Lange

  Thinking, Organization, Way

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• In my opinion there is no other salvation for civilization and even for the human race than the creation of a world government with security on the basis of law. As long as there are sovereign states with their separate armaments and armament secrets, new world wars cannot be avoided.

  Albert Einstein

  War, Science, World Government

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• We pacifists have not ceased to point to the grave danger of armaments and to insist on their curtailment.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Danger, Graves, Pacifist

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• We have to admit that, notwithstanding all the efforts in which governments and peoples have participated, no corresponding change has been wrought in the aspect of the world's armaments.

  Henry Campbell-Bannerman

  Government, Effort, World

  "Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Speech at the London Interparliamentary Conference". The Advocate of Peace, Volume 68, No. 9, archive.org. September 1906.

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• It is idle to say that nations can struggle to outdo each other in building armaments and never use them. History demonstrates the contrary, and we have but to go back to the last war to see the appalling effect of nations competing in great armaments.

  Frank B. Kellogg

  War, Struggle, Use

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• Armaments are necessary - or are maintained on the pretext of necessity - because of a real or an imagined danger of war.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Real, War, Danger

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• Thus, if armaments were curtailed without a secure peace and all countries disarmed proportionately, military security would have been in no way affected.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Country, Military, Way

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• Let us assume that the ideal were reached; let us imagine a state of international life in which the danger of war no longer exists. Then no one would dare to demand a penny for obviously completely superfluous armaments.

  Ludwig Quidde

  War, Demand, Pennies

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• What is at stake is how to answer the potential threat Iraq represents with the risk of proliferation of WMD. Baghdad's regime did use such weapons in the past. Today, a number of evidences may lead to think that, over the past four years, in the absence of international inspectors, this country has continued armament programs.

  Jacques Chirac

  Country, Thinking, Past

  "Interview with French President Jacques Chirac". L'Orient-Le Jour Interview, www.globalpolicy.org. October 16, 2002.

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• The present level of armaments could be taken as the starting point. It could be stipulated in an international treaty that these armaments should be simultaneously and uniformly reduced by a certain proportion in all countries.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Country, Taken, Levels

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• Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace international cooperation or international disintegration. Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.

  Bernard Baruch

  Lying, Race, Agreement

  Bernard Baruch's Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, June 14, 1946.

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• We must wake up to the insane reality of our time. We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.

  Thor Heyerdahl

  Reality, Axes, People

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• Among pacifists it was above all the English who always insisted on the importance of disarmament. They said that the man in the street would not understand the kind of pacifism that neglected to demand immediate restriction of armaments.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Men, Demand, Kind

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• So long as peace is not attained by law (so argue the advocates of armaments) the military protection of a country must not be undermined, and until such is the case disarmament is impossible.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Country, Military, Law

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• Every success in limiting armaments is a sign that the will to achieve mutual understanding exists, and every such success thus supports the fight for international law and order.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Fighting, Order, Law

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• Limitation of armaments in itself is economically and financially important quite apart from security.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Important, Security, Limitation

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• It will be sufficient to point to the enormous burdens which armaments place on the economic, social, and intellectual resources of a nation, as well as on its budget and taxes.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Intellectual, Economic, Burden

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• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Military, War

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

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• It is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Hands, Nuclear Disarmament, Weapons

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• In all my activities as Armament Minister I never once visited a labor camp, and cannot, therefore, give any information about them.

  Albert Speer

  Giving, Information, Ministers

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• If only the authorities could be made to realize that the forces leading them on in the armament race are just insane.

  Alva Myrdal

  Race, Police, Insane

  Alva Myrdal's Nobel Lecture in Oslo, Norway, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1982.

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• This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Children, War, Military

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

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• Competition in armament, both land and naval, is not only a terrible burden upon the people, but I believe it to be one of the greatest menaces to the peace of the world.

  Frank B. Kellogg

  Believe, Land, People

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• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Children, Military

  Speech in Washington, 16 Apr. 1953, in Public Papers of Presidents 1953 (1960) p. 182

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• Our priorities require that all children of Palestine, men and women, be ready for conflict, both from the standpoint of training and from the standpoint of armament.

  Ahmed Yassin

  Children, Women, Priorities

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