Speaking Of: War : What Some Sages Have Said Through The Ages

“The Lord is a man of war.”

--Exodus 15:3 “Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other.”

--Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish novelist “It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.”

--Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), U.S. general “What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war. Gasoline is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict.”

--Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher “Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.” --Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976), Chinese revolutionary “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. inventor, diplomat, statesman “Whensoever hostile aggressions . . . require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.”

--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third U.S. President “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.”

--Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), American poet and biographer “In war nothing is impossible, provided you use audacity.” --George S. Patton (1885-1945), U.S. general “The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on.”

--Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), U.S. Civil War general and 18th President “Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”

--Herbert C. Hoover (1874-1964), 31st U.S. President “War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means.”

--Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), Prussian general and military writer “Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”

--Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch philosopher “No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.”

--Winston Churchill (1874-1965), World War II, British Prime Minister “We make war that we may live in peace.”

“A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a very good chance of eventually being fought.”

--George F. Kennan, U.S. diplomat “In war there is no second prize for the runner up.”

--Omar Bradley (1893-1981), U.S. general “Either man is obsolete or war is.”

--R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), U.S. architect and engineer