Famous Quotes & Sayings

Benjamin Franklin

I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.

Benjamin Franklin

The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III was the prime reason for the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

Benjamin Franklin

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

Benjamin Franklin

Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.

Benjamin Franklin

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

Benjamin Franklin

Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.

Benjamin Franklin

There is no good war or bad peace

Benjamin Franklin

A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.

Benjamin Franklin

The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent.

Benjamin Franklin

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Benjamin Franklin

The expenses required to prevent a war are much lighter than those that will, if not prevented, be absolutely necessary to maintain it.

Benjamin Franklin

It is the duty of mankind on all suitable occasions to acknowledge their dependence on the Divine Being... Almighty God would mercifully interpose and still the rage of war among the nations... He would take this province under His protection, confound the designs and defeat the attempts of its enemies, and unite our hearts and strengthen our hands in every undertaking that may be for the public good, and for our defense and security in this time of danger.

Benjamin Franklin

There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.

Benjamin Franklin

I firmly believe this ... that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

Benjamin Franklin

[It was] the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and . . . the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

Benjamin Franklin

What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief.

Belle Boyd

I hope that when I commence that oath, my tongue may cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I ever sign one line to show allegiance, I hope my arm falls paralyzed to my side....Get out. I'm so disgusted I can't endure your presence any longer.

Belle Boyd

I firmly believe that in this fiery ordeal, in this suffering, misery, and woe, the South is but undergoing a purification by fire and steel that will, in good time, and by God's decree, work out her own independence.

Belle Boyd

If it is a crime to love the South, its cause and its President, then I am a criminal. I would rather lie down in this prison and die than leave it owing allegiance to a government such as yours.

Barkhad Abdi

I left Somalia when I was seven years old, but I witnessed a whole year in a war.

Barbara Tuchman

The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.

Barbara Tuchman

No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.

Barbara Tuchman

Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.

Barbara Tuchman

Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.

Barbara Tuchman

More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life...

Barbara Tuchman

in the midst of war and crisis nothing is as clear or as certain as it appears in hindsight

Barbara Tuchman

The conduct of war was so much more interesting than its prevention.

Barbara Tuchman

The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity.

Barbara Tuchman

Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.

Axl Rose

What’s so civil about war anyway?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Many people in Europe and the U.S. dispute the thesis that we are living through a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west. But a radical minority of Muslims firmly believes that Islam is under siege, and is committed to winning the holy war it has declared against the West.