By whatever name men may call murder - murder always remains murder.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1909
Never think that war […] is not a crime.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1946
***
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
—Anonymous
1
Truth is the first casualty of war.
—Mrs. Philip Snowden, 1915
2
You need two dogs for a fight,
You need two wrongs for a war.
—Anonymous
3
War settles nothing; […] to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
—Agatha Christie, 1977
We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide.
—Ramsey MacDonald, 1930
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
—Jeannette Rankin, 1974
The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no
longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
—Winston Churchill, 1930
***
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of
indemnifying losses.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1798
The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that
it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations.
—David Friedman, 1973
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
—Isaac Asimov, 1951
1
Frequently misattributed to Bertrand Russell.
2
Samuel Johnson expressed a similar idea, but in a much longer form, as early as in 1758. Variants
of this maxim are frequently misattributed to Aeschylus (525-456 BC), and Hiram Johnson
(1866-1945). It was paraphrased in 1928 by Arthur Ponsonby, without a reference.
3
Perhaps rooted in a Dutch proverb, “When two quarrel, both are in the wrong”.
184
On War and Peace
—Leo Tolstoy, 1909
Never think that war […] is not a crime.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1946
***
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
—Anonymous
1
Truth is the first casualty of war.
—Mrs. Philip Snowden, 1915
2
You need two dogs for a fight,
You need two wrongs for a war.
—Anonymous
3
War settles nothing; […] to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
—Agatha Christie, 1977
We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide.
—Ramsey MacDonald, 1930
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
—Jeannette Rankin, 1974
The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no
longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
—Winston Churchill, 1930
***
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of
indemnifying losses.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1798
The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that
it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations.
—David Friedman, 1973
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
—Isaac Asimov, 1951
1
Frequently misattributed to Bertrand Russell.
2
Samuel Johnson expressed a similar idea, but in a much longer form, as early as in 1758. Variants
of this maxim are frequently misattributed to Aeschylus (525-456 BC), and Hiram Johnson
(1866-1945). It was paraphrased in 1928 by Arthur Ponsonby, without a reference.
3
Perhaps rooted in a Dutch proverb, “When two quarrel, both are in the wrong”.
184
On War and Peace