Quotes about war and peace

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Marriage is like life in this—that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses.

All warfare is based on deception.

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

There are two powers that make for peace: what is right, and what is fitting.

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.

ABRUPT, adj. Sudden, without ceremony, like the arrival of a cannon- shot and the departure of the soldier whose interests are most affected by it. Dr. Samuel Johnson beautifully said of another author’s ideas that they were “concatenated without abruption.”

ADMIRAL, n. That part of a war-ship which does the talking while the figure-head does the thinking.

AMBITION, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.

BARRACK, n. A house in which soldiers enjoy a portion of that of which it is their business to deprive others.

BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knot that would not yield to the tongue.

CONTEMPT, n. The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

CONTROVERSY, n. A battle in which spittle or ink replaces the injurious cannon-ball and the inconsiderate bayonet.

DRAGOON, n. A soldier who combines dash and steadiness in so equal measure that he makes his advances on foot and his retreats on horseback.

DUEL, n. A formal ceremony preliminary to the reconciliation of two enemies. Great skill is necessary to its satisfactory observance; if awkwardly performed the most unexpected and deplorable consequences sometimes ensue. A long time ago a man lost his life in a duel.

EPAULET, n. An ornamented badge, serving to distinguish a military officer from the enemy—that is to say, from the officer of lower rank to whom his death would give promotion.

HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

LOGOMACHY, n. A war in which the weapons are words and the wounds punctures in the swim-bladder of self-esteem—a kind of contest in which, the vanquished being unconscious of defeat, the victor is denied the reward of success.

MANICHEISM, n. The ancient Persian doctrine of an incessant warfare between Good and Evil. When Good gave up the fight the Persians joined the victorious Opposition.

MISERICORDE, n. A dagger which in mediaeval warfare was used by the foot soldier to remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal.

OFFENSIVE, adj. Generating disagreeable emotions or sensations, as the advance of an army against its enemy.

OUTDO, v.t. To make an enemy.

PEACE, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself.

PLEONASM, n. An army of words escorting a corporal of thought.

REAR, n. In American military matters, that exposed part of the army that is nearest to Congress.

RECRUIT, n. A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniform and from a soldier by his gait.

TRUST, n. In American politics, a large corporation composed in greater part of thrifty working men, widows of small means, orphans in the care of guardians and the courts, with many similar malefactors and public enemies.

Reconciliation with our enemies is but a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, the fear of some unlucky accident.

We are inconsolable at being deceived by our enemies and betrayed by our friends, yet still we are often content to be thus served by ourselves.

Valour in common soldiers is a perilous method of earning their living.

Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

There is no passion wherein self-love reigns so powerfully as in love, and one is always more ready to sacrifice the peace of the loved one than his own.

We have not the courage to say generally that we have no faults, and that our enemies have no good qualities; but in fact we are not far from believing so.

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

There is often more pride than goodness in our grief for our enemies’ miseries; it is to show how superior we are to them, that we bestow on them the sign of our compassion.

However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.

Scholars are generally malignant when they are refuting others; and if they think a man is making a mistake, they straightway look upon him as their mortal enemy.

It is no wonder that we all more or less delight in the mediocre, because it leaves us in peace: it gives us the comfortable feeling of intercourse with what is like ourselves.

The most privileged position, in life as in society, is that of an educated soldier. Rough warriors, at any rate, remain true to their character, and as great strength is usually the cover for good nature, we get on with them at need.

Some men think about the defects of their friends, and there is nothing to be gained by it. I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.