top of page
Exlpore more War quotes

"The doctrine that war is always a greater evil seems to imply a materialist ethic, a belief that death and pain are the greatest evils. But I do not think they are... All men die, and most men miserably. That two soldiers on opposite sides, each believing his own country to be in the right, each at the moment when his selfishness is most in abeyance and his will to sacrifice in the ascendant, should kill [each] other in plain battle seems to me by no means one of the most terrible things in this terrible world."

"What is the first thing we did when we took control of Iraq? Protect the oil fields. Remember the administration quote about how the oil would pay for the war."

"In the matter of war, ask this question to yourself and to your own fellow country men: Have you ever seen any politician in your country without legs, without arms, without eyes after war? No! You can't see such a thing because honourless politicians always stay in the safe ports while they send others to the zone of death!"

"Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace."

"Nations never see themselves clearly in the mirror, much less when war preys on their minds."
Explore more quotes by A. J. P. Taylor

"In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer - the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power."

"There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment - and nothing more corrupting."

"The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight."

"Psychoanalysts believe that the only 'normal' people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anyone else."

"Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones."
bottom of page