War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.

Laws are silent in time of war.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

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.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we’ve had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I’ve taken.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

I think we’ve taken the meaning of Christmas out. People don’t stop and think about Jesus or the birth of Jesus. When they think of Christmas, they think of Santa Claus and – for the children, and they think of giving gifts and out-giving the next person of spending their time looking for the right thing for somebody who has everything.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating… because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition.

People do not make wars; governments do.

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

Make no mistake about why these babies are here – they are here to replace us.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

The argument that resistance to the war should remain strictly nonviolent seems to me overwhelming.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

In ‚Changeling,‘ I tried to show something you’d never see nowadays – a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon – no alternative.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.

War had always seemed to me to be a purely human behavior. Accounts of warlike behavior date back to the very first written records of human history; it seemed to be an almost universal characteristic of human groups.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

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.

I let people fill in the blanks on their own. If they want to think about their ex, that’s fine. If they want to think about maybe who one of my exes is, then that’s fine. And it might not be right, because I’m the only one who knows what these songs are really about. It’s the one shred of privacy I have in the matter.

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

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

We have lived long enough to experience the hollowness of earth and the rottenness of all carnal promises.

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up.