Aphorisms Galore!

War and Peace

74 aphorisms  ·  one comment

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/snhswbdj  ·  submitted 1997

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Bertrand Russell, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/v6pxskz7  ·  submitted 1999 by Dr Nathan Rozenfarb

Close the book and open your heart.

Nathan Rozenfarb, (on religious conflicts), in War and Peace

tiny.ag/crui0h1u  ·  submitted 1997

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, (inaugural speech, 1944), in War and Peace

tiny.ag/hdyoy0ri  ·  submitted 1999 by Chris Daniels

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded... I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed... I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, (Chautauqua, New York, August 14, 1936), in War and Peace

tiny.ag/ldizacqu  ·  submitted 1997

Foundation (paperback)

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Isaac Asimov, Foundation (Salvor Hardin), in War and Peace and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/rkg7iuvl  ·  submitted 1997

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Charles de Gaulle, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/5mrm7cdg  ·  submitted 1997

The Greek Way (paperback)

It was a Roman who said it was sweet to die for one's country. The Greeks never said it was sweet to die for anything. They had no vital lies.

Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way, in Life and Death and War and Peace

tiny.ag/mkv04ioy  ·  submitted 1997

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

Cardinal Richelieu, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/ry32bjva  ·  submitted 1997

Catch-22 (paperback)

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/b5zelloy  ·  submitted 1997

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.

Edward Everett, in War and Peace and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/lgkszg2d  ·  submitted 1997

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, in Law and Politics and War and Peace

tiny.ag/xm0eggq6  ·  submitted 1997

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

David Friedman, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/sxpzikiy  ·  submitted 1997

To save your world you asked this man to die;
Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?

W. H. Auden, "Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier", in War and Peace

tiny.ag/zl0ikbnv  ·  submitted 1997

Coward: one who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.

Ambrose Bierce, in Vice and Virtue and War and Peace

tiny.ag/tldrjftc  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Riot: A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/pyjfe6sb  ·  submitted 1997

I once played a sheriff who thought he could do the job without a gun. I was dead in twenty-seven minutes of a thirty minute show.

Ronald Reagan, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/aij5p9qp  ·  submitted 1997

Another victory like that and we are done for.

Pyrrhus, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/crjwer6v  ·  submitted 1997

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

George Patton, in War and Peace

tiny.ag/hrd6aj12  ·  submitted 1997

A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.

George Patton, in War and Peace and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/b5lrmegw  ·  submitted 1997

Katz' Law: Man and nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been exhausted.

Unknown, in War and Peace