But does that mean that war and violence are inevitable? I would argue not because we have also evolved this amazingly sophisticated intellect, and we are capable of controlling our innate behavior a lot of the time.

Every writer has his writing technique – what he can and can’t do to describe something like war or history. I’m not good at writing about those things, but I try because I feel it is necessary to write that kind of thing.

Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.

I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.

We’re hardwired for connection. There’s no arguing with the bioscience. But we can want it so badly we’re trying to hot-wire it.

If you think back to the beginning of cell phones, laptops or really any new technology, it’s always expensive.

When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

My speculation is that the U.S. does not want to establish the principle that it has to defer to some higher authority before carrying out the use of violence.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

Fashion is made to become unfashionable.

Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals.

The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them.

Deliberate violence is more to be quenched than a fire.

I read the ‚Old Testament‘ all the way through when I was about 13 and was horrified. A few months afterwards I read ‚The Origin Of Species‘, hallucinating very mildly because I was in bed with flu at the time. Despite that, or because of that, it all made perfect sense.

War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.

Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

Books are sharks… because sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.

Chinese people need to be controlled; otherwise, they will do whatever they want.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.

I do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can’t explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something?

The violence in the Bible is appalling.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

I’ve written a number of books that have to do with the evolution of humans, human intelligence, human emotions.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.

The computer brings out the worst in some people.

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity.

In time we hate that which we often fear.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what’s causing us to do what we do.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars – yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

A war with Pakistan would be an utter disaster.

All the screen cowboys behaved like real gentlemen. They didn’t drink, they didn’t smoke. When they knocked the bad guy down, they always stood with their fists up, waiting for the heavy to get back on his feet. I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him.

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

To a guy like me, a laugh is full of information.

Communism is a religion that is inspired, directed and motivated by the Devil himself who has declared war against Almighty God.

While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I’m no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

If I hit a man, his head is gonna go into the bleachers.

Even though the risks of death are higher driving than flying, many people would rather drive simply because they feel they have more control driving. The facts are that only a few hundred people die a year flying, and 44,000 are killed a year driving.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it’s again not people who are intrinsically evil.

Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate… we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

I don’t think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that’s now history.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.