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Antiwar Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
- The power of making war often prevents it.
- Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.
- Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
- Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
- I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
- If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
- Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
- A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
- I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
- The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
- War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
- If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
- We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
- Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.
- Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
More Antiwar Quotes
- The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. — Hannah Arendt
- To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why? — Wystan Hugh Auden
- Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too. — Marcus Aurelius
- Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. — Francis Bacon
- The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home… — Edward Abbey
- There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with… — John Adams
- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. — John Adams
- Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction. — Bernard Baruch
- If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat. — Simone de Beauvoir
- A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side. — Joseph Addison
- All war represents a failure of diplomacy. — Tony Benn
- It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. — Alfred Adler