War Veteran Quotes

• I am a Korean War veteran. I support our troops as much as anyone in this body, but I do so by advocating redeployment out of Iraq as soon as it can be safely done.

  John Conyers

  War, Iraq, Support

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• I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, War, Hate

  Speech in Ottawa on January 10, 1946. "Eisenhower Speaks: Dwight D. Eisenhower in His Messages and Speeches". Book edited by Rudolph L. Treuenfels, 1948.

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• Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Courage

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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  What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Inspirational, Life, Basketball

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1959). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958”, p.135, Best Books on

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  Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Life, Change, Wise

  1952 In Time, 6 Oct.

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• Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Courage, Veterans Day, Strong

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.69, Simon and Schuster

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• We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

  Cynthia Ozick

  Thanksgiving, Thank You, Thankful

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• Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.

  George S. Patton

  Military, War, 4th Of July

  "Cavalry Journal", September 1933.

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• Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

  George Santayana

  Military, War, Philosophical

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• There never was a good war or a bad revolution.

  Edward Abbey

  Veterans Day, Peace, War

  Edward Abbey (1998). “The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel”, p.140, Macmillan

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• Only the dead have seen the end of war.

  Plato

  Death, Memorial Day, Plato

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• We have guided missiles and misguided men.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Science

  Strength to Love ch. 7 (1963)

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• Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Inspirational, Military, War

  Ernest Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway (2012). “Hemingway on War”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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• Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Veterans Day, Peace, War

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• **** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

  David Farragut

  War, Military, Marine

  At the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 ('torpedoes' were mines). Capt. A. T. Mahan 'Admiral Farragut' (1892) ch. 10

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• It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Peace, War

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students”, p.68, Beacon Press

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• We make war that we may live in peace.

  Aristotle

  Strength, Veterans Day, Peace

  Nicomachean Ethics bk. 10, 1177b See Vegetius 1

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• What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Peace, War

  Non-Violence in Peace and War (1942) vol. 1, ch. 142

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• War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

  John Stuart Mill

  Military, War, Patriotic

  "The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

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• To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

  George Washington

  Inspirational, Leadership, Motivation

  1790 First Annual Address, 8 Jan.

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• A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

  John Stuart Mill

  Freedom, War, Military

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• Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

  Bernard Malamud

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Courage

  Bernard Malamud (2003). “The Natural: A Novel”, p.148, Macmillan

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• I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: "Mother, what was war?"

  Eve Merriam

  Mother, Dream, Veterans Day

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• The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.

  George Washington

  Veterans Day, Military, War

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• The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

  Patrick Henry

  Inspirational, Veterans Day, Courage

  Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, delivered 23 March 1775 at Henrico Parrish Church St, Richmond Virginia, Second Virginia Convention

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