Great War Quotes

On this page you will find all the quotes on the topic "Great War". There are currently 222 quotes in our collection about Great War. Discover the TOP 10 sayings about Great War!
The best sayings about Great War that you can share on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and other social networks!
  • So great are the psychological resistances to war in modern nations, that every war must appear to be a war of defence against a menacing, murderous aggressor. There must be no ambiguity about whom the public is to hate. Guilt and guilelessness must be assessed geographically and all the guilt must be on the other side of the frontier.

    War   Hate   Guilt  
  • Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

    Peace   War   Ubuntu  
    George Orwell's review of the book "The Men I Killed" by Brigadier-General F. P. Crozier in "New Statesman and Nation", August 28, 1937.
  • Judging from the way they sat and goggled at the drag on the stage it was obvious that they were indulging in delightful fantasies that brought to them substantial memories of the girls they had left behind in London or Manchester. As the Quartermaster Captain lisped after performing before a particularly rapt audience: 'I bet there were more standing pricks than snotty noses tonight'. Astonishingly, I suspect he was right. We probably helped to keep the home fires of passion burning.

    Girl   Memories   War  
  • No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.

    Mother   Peace   War  
    Moscow State University Address, delivered 31 May 1988, Moscow, Russia
  • It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

    Change   Hope   Courage  
    Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt
  • Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

    Peace   War   Stupid  
  • The First World War killed fewer victims than the Second World War, destroyed fewer buildings, and uprooted millions instead of tens of millions - but in many ways it left even deeper scars both on the mind and on the map of Europe. The old world never recovered from the shock.

    War   Europe   Mind  
    Edmond Taylor (2015). “The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922”, p.312, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
  • It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

    Freedom   Real   War  
    James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press
  • Only the dead have seen the end of war.

  • All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

    Money   War   Battle  
    Benjamin Franklin, E. Sargent (1855). “The select works of Benjamin Franklin”, p.459
  • Some men of the line regiment who had appeared on our right started running back. I shouted out to them to halt, but they took no notice. I pulled out my revolver and very nearly shot at them, but I thought it wouldn't do any good, as they all had their backs to me so would have thought that anyone hit was hit by a German bullet. If I ran after them my men might think I was running away. So I took my men on!

    Running   War   Men  
  • If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle

    Sun Tzu, Julius Caesar, Einhard, Niccolò Machiavelli, Carl von Clausewitz (2016). “Strategy Six Pack”, p.12, Lulu.com
  • In 1918, when I was 6 or 7 years old, radio was just coming into use in the Great War.

    War   Years   Radio  
    "Oscar for Lifetime Achievement". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 25, 1993.
  • Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, and more memorable than any that had preceded it.

    War   Believe   Memorable  
    Thucydides, Sir Richard Winn Livingstone (1960). “The History of the Peloponnesian War”, Oxford University Press, USA
  • [T]he essence of so-called war prosperity: it enriches some by what it takes from others. It is not rising wealth but a shifting of wealth and income.

    Money   Peace   War  
  • Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.

    Suicide   War   Fighting  
    "Under Fire". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1916.
  • Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat for it is momentary.

    Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “Collected Works”
  • So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!

    War   Women   Book  
    Quoted in McClure's Magazine, Apr. 1911.
  • Our way of getting an army able to fight the German army is to declare war on Germany just as if we had such an army, and then trust to the appalling resultant peril and disaster to drive us into wholesale enlistment.

    War   Army   Fighting  
    George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more”, p.5298, e-artnow
  • Woodrow Wilson is reported to have told a Princeton colleague, shortly after the 1912 election, "It would be an irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign problems, for all my preparation has been in domestic matters." In the event, Wilson's early months were marked by substantial domestic legislative accomplishment. Unfortunately, after Europe plunged into the Great War in August 1914, Wilson's leadership was uncertain.

  • The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

  • I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on, no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case of musterd gas - the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great musterd coloured suppurating blisters, with blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying their throats are closing and they know they will choke.

    War   Eye   Writing  
  • Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our share in the destruction of Germany. A month ago Europe was a peaceful comity of nations; if an Englishman killed a German, he was hanged. Now, if an Englishman kills a German, or if a German kills an Englishman, he is a patriot, who has deserved well of his country.

    Country   War   Europe  
    Bertrand Russell (1994). “Prophecy and Dissent, 1914-16”, p.7, Psychology Press
  • I always wondered why the makers leave housekeeping and cooking out of their tales. Isn't it what all the great wars and battles are fought for -- so that at day's end a family may eat together in a peaceful house?

    War   House   Cooking  
  • A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.

    War   Men   Spirit  
    Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.400, Cosimo, Inc.
  • 'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

    "Law, Legislation and Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Volume 3: "The Political Order of a Free People". Chapter 17: "A Model Constitution", 1973.
  • The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

    Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.47
  • Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.

    Peace   War   Lying  
  • Wimsey stooped for an empty sardine-tin which lay, horribly battered, at his feet, and slung it idly into the quag. It struck the surface with a noice like a wet kiss, and vanished instantly. With that instinct which prompts one, when depressed, to wallow in every circumstance of gloom, Peter leaned sadly against the hurdles and abandoned himself to a variety of shallow considerations upon (1) The vanity of human wishes; (2) Mutability; (3) First love; (4) The decay of idealism; (5) The aftermath of the Great war; (6) Birth-control; and (7) The fallacy of free-will.

  • No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

    James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing
Page 1 of 8
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • We hope our collection of Great War quotes has inspired you! Our collection of sayings about Great War is constantly growing (today it includes 222 sayings from famous people about Great War), visit us more often and find new quotes from famous authors!
    Share our collection of quotes on social networks – this will allow as many people as possible to find inspiring quotes about Great War!