« All War Quotes · Thomas Paine's Page
War Quotes by Thomas Paine
- From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?
- The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.
- Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.
- Thus commerce, though in itself a moral nullity, has had a considerable influence in tempering the human mind....he trades with the same countries ...(that he)…
- I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf,…
- It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object,…
- Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it…
- In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare…
- I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will…
- War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game.
- If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
- Let the world see that this nation can bear prosperity; and that her honest virtue in time of peace is equal to her bravest valor…
- When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop,…
- In a general view, there are few conquests that repay the charge of making them, and mankind are pretty well convinced that it can never…
- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
- War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain,…
- To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of…
- Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
- The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
- I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
- Character is much easier kept than recovered.
- Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
- An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
- It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
- He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
More War Quotes
- War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford. — Hannah Arendt
- The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. — Hannah Arendt
- As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was. — J. J. Abrams
- Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of… — Aristophanes
- We make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle
- Ever since the Crusades, when Christians from western Europe were fighting holy wars against Muslims in the near east, western people have… — Karen Armstrong
- These people were well dressed in skins, had some guns, but armed generally with bows and arrows and such other instruments of… — William Henry Ashley
- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. — Isaac Asimov
- John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only… — Isaac Asimov
- We released 400,000 classified documents, the most extraordinary history of a war to ever have been released in our civilization. Those documents… — Julian Assange
- What is the possible benefit? Can this material save lives? Can it improve the quality of life in Iraq? Can it tend… — Julian Assange
- War is what happens when language fails. — Margaret Atwood