Contention does not usually begin as strife between countries. More often, it starts with an individual, for we can contend within ourselves over simple matters of right and wrong. From there, contention can infect neighbors and nations like a spreading sore.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

This was not an act of terrorism, but it was an act of war.

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.

You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.

Today different ethnic groups and different nations come together due to common sense.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?

Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn’t come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn’t resurging. It didn’t work out.

I totally disagree with the view that the Tibet struggle will die, and there will be no hope for Tibet, after the Dalai Lama passes away.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

Prime Minister Maliki, released from American restraint, acted on his worst instincts, creating enormous distrust in Iraq’s Kurdish population and deeply embittering Sunnis in western Iraq’s Al Anbar, who lost any confidence in a Baghdad government they saw as adversarial.

No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. And there’s no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime.

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

‚Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age‘ was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant’s thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

I don’t want to get into it, but if you know someone, it doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say or they do.

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

People like to talk about war.

If you don’t like what someone has to say, argue with them.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

Israelis would mostly breathe a sigh of relief if Palestinians were to disappear.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.

I saw what happened when a dictator was allowed to take over a piece of a country and the country went down the tubes. And I saw the opposite during the war when America joined the fight.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons.

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

Contention existed before the earth was formed.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

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

War settles nothing.

As Dortmund manager, I lived in a street, and my two neighbours were Schalke fans. They showed it every day, flying flags!

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

I gave ‚em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.

A war with Pakistan would be an utter disaster.

My concern is that contention is becoming accepted as a way of life.