Total War Quotes

• Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war.

  David Dellinger

  Peace, War, Ubuntu

  55 Copy quote

• The hardest thing of all for a soldier is to retreat.

  Duke of Wellington

  Military, War, Soldier

  53 Copy quote

• To be thrown upon one's own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previosly unsusceptible.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Moving, Character, Energy

  7 Copy quote

• War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

  Martin Luther

  War, Humanity, States

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1857). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.332

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  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

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• For what can war, but endless war, still breed?

  John Milton

  War, Endless, Stills

  'On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester' (written 1648, published 1694)

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• Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.

  John Milton

  Powerful, Military, War

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 1, l. 648

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• The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.

  Arthur Koestler

  Veterans Day, Military, War

  Janus (1978) prologue

  12 Copy quote

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  Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

  Sun Tzu

  Strength, Peace, War

  Sun Tzu (2005). “The Art of War”, p.57, Shambhala Publications

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• There are so few who can grow old with a good grace.

  Richard Steele

  Inspirational, Grace, Age

  'The Spectator' no. 263 (1 January 1712)

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• Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks.

  Bob Dylan

  Wall, War, Gun

  Bob Dylan (2013). “Lyrics:1962-2012”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Scales

  Carl von Clausewitz, Michael Howard, Peter Paret (1989). “On War”, p.75, Princeton University Press

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• Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

  Immanuel Kant

  Freedom, Law, Principles

  "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Book by Immanuel Kant, 1785.

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• By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Motivational, Softball

  Benjamin Franklin, The Secret Libraries (2016). “Benjamin Franklin Quotes... Vol. 23: Motivational and Inspirational Life Quotes by Benjamin Franklin”

  69 Copy quote

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• We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France.

  Duke of Wellington

  War, France, Has Beens

  "Re-enacting Waterloo". www.economist.com. June 16, 2005.

  66 Copy quote

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• Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest.

  Duke of Wellington

  Military, War, History

  20 Copy quote

• Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  War, Political, Sound

  43 Copy quote

• The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.

  Duke of Wellington

  Art, War, Sides

  14 Copy quote

• Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.

  Benjamin Franklin

  War, Fighting, Liberty

  Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Louis Ketcham (2003). “The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin”, p.303, Hackett Publishing

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• I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.

  Benjamin Franklin

  War, Thinking, Has Beens

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1817). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.107

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• Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.

  Sun Tzu

  Inspirational, Art, Fear

  The Art of War ch. 3 (translation by Yuan Shibang)

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• Nothing good ever comes of violence.

  Martin Luther

  War, Violence, Anti War

  71 Copy quote

• I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.

  Duke of Wellington

  Military, War, Humorous

  68 Copy quote

• I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.

  Duke of Wellington

  War, Men, Differences

  Quoted in Philip Henry Stanhope, Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1888) (entry for 2 Nov. 1831)

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• Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Real, War, Men

  Carl von Clausewitz (2016). “On War: Vom Kriege: fog of war”, p.222, Aegitas

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