War

Insulated from outside pressures, armed with matchless weapons and technology, trained to operate below the shadow line, the Pentagon's black world of classified operations holds out the hope of swift, decisive action in a struggle against terrorism that often looks more like a family feud than a war.
~ William M. Arkin, The Los Angeles Times (27 October 2002). The Secret War

What Pentagon security types miss in their war against the Web is that the Internet and unprecedented openness of information is also the primary reasons for America's unchallenged strength and vitality in the post-Cold War world.
~ William M. Arkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, "Dot.Mil" (1998). Warring on the Web

News of battle! -- news of battle!
Hark! 'tis ringing down the street;
And the archways and the pavement
Bear the clang of hurrying feet.
~ William Edmondstoune (W.E.) Aytoun, from Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1849). Edinburgh after Flodden. Stanza 1

From the point of view of sexual morality the aeroplane is valuable in war in that it destroys men and women in equal numbers.
~ Ernest William Barnes

The Sowers go forth once more,
Sowers of vision, sowers of the seed
Of peace or war.
Shall it be peace indeed?
~ William Rose Benét, The Red Country

O soldier, say my son is safe -- for nothing else I care,
And you shall have a mother's thanks -- shall have a widow's prayer.
~ William Cox Bennett, From India. Stanza 1

O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war! When the senses
Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand?
~ William Blake, from Poetical Sketches (1783). Prologue, intended for a Dramatic Piece of King Edward the Fourth

Prepare your hearts for Death's cold hand! prepare
Your souls for flight, your bodies for the earth;
Prepare your arms for glorious victory;
Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God!
Prepare, prepare!
~ William Blake, A War Song to Englishmen

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force.
~ William Blum, Rogue State (2000).

Other people set off firecrackers. We drop atomic bombs.
~ William Bourke, in The New York Times (18 July 1978).

It is one of the painful ironies of this war that one of the most antiwar cities in the nation, San Francisco, is being disproportionately harmed by the tactics of antiwar protesters.
~ Willie L. Brown, Jr., (20 March 2003)

Ah! never shall the land forget
How gushed the life-blood of her brave --
Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet,
Upon the soil they fought to save.
~ William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field

Another hand thy sword shall wield,
Another hand the standard wave,
Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed
The blast of triumph o'er thy grave.
~ William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field

The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832). Sonnet -- Mutation (written in 1824)

Intelligence and war are games, perhaps the only meaningful games left. If any player becomes too proficient, the game is threatened with termination.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine (1985). The Hundred Year Plan

This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games.
~ William S. Burroughs, in Grand Street, no. 37 (1992). The War Universe

I felt then -- and I still do -- that I acted as directed, I carried out my orders, and I did not feel wrong in doing so.
~ William Calley, My Lai court-martial testimony (February 1971).

Well, I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job on that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified the same, and that was the classification that we dealt with, just as enemy soldiers.
~ William Calley, My Lai court-martial testimony (February 1971).

If we're going to fight this war on terrorism united as a people, then let's also fight the war on racism. Let's live up to the true creed of this country.
~ Bill Campbell, FoxNews Channel, Hannity & Colmes (5 December 2001). Misquote?

Dropping the first bomb was just a matter of luck.
~ William A. Campbell (on the Tuskegee Airmen participating in an attack on Pantelleria Island off the coast of Sicily; June 2, 1943), (26 February 1944).

Over all our happy country -- over all our Nation spread,
Is a band of noble heroes -- is our Army of the Dead.
~ William McKendree ("Will") Carleton, from Farm Ballads (1873). Our Army of the Dead

You say the English and the Americans have right on their side, and justice, and the good of the world? Yes, but how can love fight at all?
~ (William) Bliss Carman, The Friendship of Art (1904). The Paths of Peace

In all circumstances, at all times, war is to be deprecated. The evil passions which it excites, its ravages, its bloody conflicts, the distress and terror which it carries into domestic life, the tears which it draws from the widow and fatherless, all render war a tremendous scourge.
~ William Ellery Channing, Extracts from Sermons preached, on Days of Humiliation and Prayer, appointed in consequence of the Declaration of War against Great Britain (c. 1812). Duties of the Citizen in Times of Trial or Danger

The miseries of war may be easily conceived from its very nature. By war, we understand the resort of nations to force, violence, and the most dreaded methods of destruction and devastation. In war, the strength, skill, courage, energy, and resources of a whole people are concentrated for the infliction of pain and death. The bowels of the earth are explored, the most active elements combined, the resources of art and nature exhausted, to increase the power of man in destroying his fellow-creatures. . . . Would you learn what destruction man, when thus aided, can spread around him?
~ William Ellery Channing, Address to the Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, Boston MA (1816). First Discourse on War

War will never yield but to the principles of universal justice and love.
~ William Ellery Channing, On War. A Lecture (1838).

We need not war to awaken human energy. There is at least equal scope for courage and magnanimity in blessing, as in destroying mankind.
~ William Ellery Channing, Address to the Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, Boston MA (1816). First Discourse on War

What distinquishes war is, not that man is slain, but that he is slain, spoiled, crushed by the cruelty, the injustice, the treachery, the murderous hand of man. The evil is Moral evil. War is the concentration of all human crimes. Here is its distinguishing, accursed brand. Under its standard gather violence, malignity, rage, fraud, perfidy, rapacity, and lust. If it only slew man, it would do little. It turns man into a beast of prey.
~ William Ellery Channing, On War. A Lecture (1838).

The world is the most dangerous place it's ever been now because of what our country has done, and is doing, and we have to take it back.
~ (William) Ramsey Clark, Speech at the A.N.S.W.E.R. Inauguration Protest, John Marshall Park, Washington DC (20 January 2006)

We are beginning to resemble extinct dinosaurs, who suffered from too much armor and too little brain.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., from Credo (2003). War and Peace

These plans make it very clear . . . that there is no room for harassment or threats in the military.
~ William S. Cohen

We will not win the war on terror through military action. The sharing of information and intelligence will be vital to protecting our country.
~ William S. Cohen, Speech at the annual Harlan Lecture, University of Louisville (17 October 2003).

War, with discordant Notes and jarring Noise,
The Harmony of Peace destroys.
~ William Congreve, A Hymn to Harmony (1703).

But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book V. The Winter Morning Walk

For feats of sanguinary hue
Not always glitter in my view.
~ William Cowper, Annus Memorabilis: Written in Commemoration of His Majesty's Happy Recovery (1789).

Hence jarring sectaries may learn
Their real interest to discern;
That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other;
But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life's poor transient night is spent,
Respecting in each other's case
The gifts of nature and of grace.
~ William Cowper, The Nightingale and Glow-Worm

War lays a burden on the reeling state,
And peace does nothing to relieve the weight.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Expostulation

Strictly as a weapon of war, chemicals are by no means the most inhumane weapons we have. Artillery fire, for example, spreads the victim's body all over the landscape.
~ Admiral William J. Crowe

There are no atheists in the foxholes.
~ William Thomas Cummings, in C.P. Romulo I Saw the Fall of the Philippines (1942). Field Sermon on Bataan

Our common liberty is consecrated by a common sorrow.
~ George William Curtis, Speech at the Centennial celebration of the Battle of Concord (19 April 1875).

Taught by revelation that war with the Christians will guarantee the salvation of their souls, and finding so great secular advantages in the observance of this religious duty, their inducements to desperate fighting are very powerful.
~ William Eaton, Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering (June 1799).

War gratifies, or used to gratify, the combative instinct of mankind, but it gratifies also the love of plunder, destruction, cruel discipline, and arbitrary power.
~ Charles William Eliot, in The Oxford Book of American Essays, Chapter XX (1914), Five American Contributions to Civilization

Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
~ William Empson, Just a smack at Auden (1940).

Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an allusion of philosophers and fools.
~ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (October 1929). June Second, 1910

Give me 80 men and I'll ride through the whole Sioux nation.
~ William J. Fetterman

Every war of the future will be a war of religion, for no country will go to war till it can give its cause the color of a Crusade and so secure for its maintenance absolute loyalty of a heroic quality in the whole population.
~ William Roxburgh (W.R.) Forrester, Christian Vocation: Studies in Faith and Work (1951).

We all have to sacrifice in various ways as we likely engage in military conflict, which we could not have anticipated a year ago, which is not fully budgeted and which ultimately will have to compete with what many of us want.
~ Bill Frist, The Associated Press (4 March 2003). Frist: Veterans May Have to Sacrifice

We must dedicate our efforts to preventing terrorist attacks whether biological, conventional or unconventional by gathering intelligence and stopping events before they occur.
~ Bill Frist, Press Release (11 September 2001)

The making of peace is a continuing process that must go on from day to day, from year to year, so long as our civilization shall last.
~ J. William Fulbright, Speech before the U.S. Senate (1945).

To avoid a nuclear war . . . you may think that's pretentious but that's its main goal.
~ J. William Fulbright

To-day is to-day, and we are living in to-day. War was yesterday's way.
~ William Channing Gannett, International Good-Will as a Substitute for Armies and Navies (1912).

Madam, I am the civilization they are fighting to defend.
~ Heathcote William Garrod

The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Resolution adopted by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (January 27, 1843)

Neck-deep in mud,
He mowed and raved --
He who had braved
The field of blood --
And as a lad
Just out of school
Yelled -- April Fool!
And laughed like mad.
~ Wilfred Wilson Gibson, Mad (1914).

Go, ye heroes, go to glory,
Though you die in combat gory,
Ye shall live in song and story.
Go to immortality!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Pirates of Penzance. Act II (1880 opera)

Since there will be no one left to talk peace after the next war, it makes good sense to break with tradition and hold the peace conference first.
~ William Glasser, M.D.

A soldier is a man whose business it is to kill those who never offended him, and who are the innocent martyrs of other men's iniquities. Whatever may become of the abstract question of the justifiableness of war, it seems impossible that the soldier should not be a depraved and unnatural thing.
~ William Godwin, The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature in a Series of Essays (1797).

Before the second World War I believed in the perfectability of social man; that a correct structure of society produced goodwill; and that therefore you could remove all social ills by a reorganisation of society. It is possible that I believe something of the same again; but after the war I did not because I was unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another.
~ William Golding, in The Hot Gates (1965). Fable

The Navy's a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, "Frightfully sorry, old chap."
~ William Golding, in Sunday Times (1984).

We've always needed God from the very beginning of this nation but today we need Him especially. We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare and we need the help of the Spirit of God. The Bible's words are our hope. . . .
~ Billy Graham, Speech (14 September 2001). National Day of Prayer and Remembrance

The juggernaut -- the best and biggest military force in the world -- lumbers on, doing what it knows how to do best. It is unwilling to rethink its future, unable to let go of the past. Like the shark, it must keep feeding, only now it is feeding on itself.
~ William Greider, Fortress America (1998).

In that moment, the events of last week seemed suddenly to have been removed to some remote era of antiquity. The things that business and finance discussed last week seem now to have no relation whatever to tomorrow nor to the many days to come after tomorrow. . . . Every citizen has and knows his duty. . . . We say the sacrifices will be made. The duty will be performed.
~ William Henry Grimes, The Wall Street Journal (8 December 1941). Editorial on the news of Pearl Harbor

Carrier power varies as the square -- two carriers are four times as powerful as one.
~ Admiral William Frederick ("Bull") Halsey, Jr., from Admiral Halsey's Story (1947).

The Third Fleet's sunken and damaged ships have been salvaged and are retiring at high speed toward the enemy.
~ Admiral William Frederick ("Bull") Halsey, Jr. (on hearing claims that the Japanese had virtually annihilated the US fleet), Report (14 October 1944).

Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can't regulate every lab in the world. The danger is that either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us.
~ Stephen William Hawking, The Telegraph (16 October 2001). Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking

Oh! hold the mighty arm of war,
And let this hatred cease,
And let our voices shout with joy
That all we want is peace.
~ William Shakespeare ("Will S.") Hays, Let Us Have Peace (1861 song).

This is a unique conflict . . . in several respects. We've never been attacked quite like this before. We've never had the intersection of criminality and warlike acts in quite this way before. We've never had to face an organization whose principal mode of operation is to hide behind civilians and to attack innocent people indiscriminately on such a large scale. The president needed to have this extra option.
~ William James Haynes (remarks at a Pentagon briefing), U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs (21 March 2002). Defense Department Issues Military Commission Procedures

A day of battle is a day of harvest for the devil.
~ Rev. William Hooke, Preached in a sermon at Taunton, Massachusetts (23 July 1640). New England teares, for old Englands feares

War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (1792). Chapter 5

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, The Philosophy of Plotinus (1918).

War may be a school of virtue in bringing out noble qualities which would otherwise be latent; it can hardly create those qualities, which may also find abundant outlets in time of peace.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Christian Ethics and Modern Problems (1930).

So far, war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way.
~ William James, Speech Delivered at Stanford University (1906). The Moral Equivalent of War

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party.
~ William James, Speech Delivered at Stanford University (1906). The Moral Equivalent of War

This is the constitution of human nature which we have to work against. The plain truth is that people want war. They want it anyhow; for itself; and apart from each and every possible consequence. It is the final bouquet of life's fireworks.
~ William James, Speech before the international World's Peace Congress, Boston MA (7 October 1904).

What we need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war; something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war does, and yet will be compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). The Value of Saintliness

Happy would it be for mankind, would they learn the moral which the name of Napoleon so strongly enforces, that military power cannot confer national happiness or security.
~ William Jay, War and Peace: The Evils of the First, and a Plan for Preserving the Last (1842).

Germany calling! Germany calling!
~ William Joyce, Habitual introduction to propaganda broadcasts to Britain during the Second World War

You are at war with none. It is peace you are seeking, therefore it is best that the good in everything is found. For this brings peace.
~ William Q. Judge, in The Path (August 1886). Musings On The True Theosophist's Path

Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.
~ William Lyon Mackenzie King, Speech, Canadian House of Commons (7 July 1942).

A recent worldwide survey by the Centre for International Development and Conflict Management shows that of the 27 most significant armed conflicts in the world in 1999, only two were between states. The other 25 were within states, between citizens of the same country. . . . At the root of these conflicts, almost without exception, lies a single problem -- the inability or failure to manage or accommodate diversity (whether ethnic, cultural or religious) -- the inability of divergent communities to co-exist peacefully.
~ Frederik Willem (F.W.) de Klerk, The promotion of harmony in a pluralistic world (Speech, 21 March 2001).

At first it was a giant column that soon took the shape of a supramundane mushroom.
~ William L. Laurence, (on the first atomic explosion, 16 July 1945), in The New York Times (26 September 1945).

The Atomic Age began at exactly 5:30 Mountain War Time on the morning of July 16, 1945 on a stretch of semi-desert land about 50 airline miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico. And just at that instance there rose from the bowels of the earth a light not of this world, the light of many suns in one.
~ William L. Laurence, in The New York Times (26 September 1945).

It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagaski was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.
~ Admiral William D. Leahy, I Was There (1950).

The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. We were the first to have this weapon in our possession, and the first to use it. There is a practical certainty that potential enemies will have it in the future and that atomic bombs will some time be used against us.
~ Admiral William D. Leahy, I Was There (1950).

Almost all Europe, for many centuries, was inundated with blood, which was shed at the direct instigation or with the full approval of the ecclesiastical authorities.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe (1866). Volume II

It is the fourth major change in the conduct of war since the modern era began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and it is the largest such change. . . . Wars were fought between states, using state armies and navies, fighting forces pretty much like themselves. In the fourth generation, what we see going on today around the world, the state is losing that monopoly, increasingly states are fighting non-state forces, such as Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the FARC and so on, and everywhere the state is losing.
~ William S. Lind (on "fourth generation warfare"), FoxNews Channel, The Big Story With John Gibson (10 November 2003). Terror Warfare

World War II was "the good war." They felt good about their sacrifices and moved on.
~ William H. Macy, USA Weekend Magazine (23-25 October 1998). Straight Talk

God seems malignantly absent in the caldron of madness, savagery and malice that is war. Grace, redemption, mercy, kindness, love of neighbor -- the stuff of New Testament faith -- are incompatible with the killing rage of combat.
~ William P. Mahedy, Some Theological Perspectives on PTSD

I wondered vaguely if this was when it would end, whether I would pull up tonight's darkness like a quilt and be dead and at peace evermore.
~ William Manchester

Men . . . do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another. [And] if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity.
~ William Manchester, Good-bye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War (1980).

A experienced field sojer will figure out a way to sleep warm an' dry. Lemme know when ya do.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945).

If he is looking weary and resigned to the fact that he is probably going to die before it is over, and if he has a deep, almost hopeless desire to go home and forget it all; if he looks with dull, uncomprehending eyes at the fresh-faced kid who is talking about all the joys of battle and killing Germans, then he comes from the same infantry as Joe and Willie.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945). Introduction

Just gimme a coupla aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945).

"Peace" is when nobody's shooting. A "just peace" is when our side gets what it wants.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945).

The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945). Introduction

They are normal people who have been put where they are, and whose actions and feelings have been molded by their circumstances. There are gentlemen and boors; intelligent ones and stupid ones; talented ones and inefficient ones. . . . But when they are all together and they are fighting, despite their bitching and griping and goldbricking and mortal fear, they are facing cold steel and screaming lead and hard enemies, and they are advancing and beating the hell out of the opposition.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945). Introduction

The success of either side is doubtful to this day,
And all that can be said is both armies ran away. . . .
~ William Topaz McGonagall, The Battle of Sheriffmuir: A Historical Poem (1890)

Air Power has taken its place as the dominant instrument in international war. It can fly straight through the air to the vital centers of the opposing state, destroy them and render the country losing control of the air in a defenseless state.
~ William "Billy" Mitchell, in Aero Digest (July 1926). Awake America

It is probable that future war will be conducted by a special class, the air force, as it was by the armored Knights of the Middle Ages.
~ Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, Winged Defense (1925).

The most important branch of aviation is pursuit, which fights for and gains control of the air.
~ Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell

[He] who wars, walks in a mist, through which the keenest eyes cannot always discern the right path.
~ William Francis Patrick Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from the Year 1807 to the Year 1814. (1838) Vol. ii. Book xiii. Chapter v

No honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.
~ William Francis Patrick Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from the Year 1807 to the Year 1814. (1838) Vol. ii. Book xi. Chapter iii

Our brethen at the South should not be called slaves, but prisoners of war.
~ William C. Nell

The man who has renounced war has renounced a grand life.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1888).

Under peaceful conditions a warlike man sets upon himself.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1885-86).

Where one despises, one cannot wage war. Where one commands, where one sees something beneath one, one ought not to wage war.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888).

I saw no enemy until within forty or fifty steps of an irregular ledge of rocks -- a splendid line of natural breastworks. . . . From behind this ledge, unexpectedly to us, because concealed, they poured into us the most destructive fire I ever saw. Our line halted, but it did not break . . .
~ Colonel William Calvin Oats (of the battle for Little Round Top; 2 July 1863)

There's no question that historically the liberties of a people are at greatest risk in times of war, because it is in times of war that people are willing to sacrifice liberty for security and for their country.
~ William J. Olson, in WorldNetDaily (September 2001). Executive power grab on tap at White House?

Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn't made that will kill me.
~ William "Buckey" O'Neill

There is one certain means by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin -- I will die in the last ditch.
~ William of Orange

If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.
~ Bill O'Reilly, ABC TV (18 March 2003). Good Morning America

A mountain of smoke was going up in a mushroom with the stem coming down. At the top was white smoke but up to 1,000 feet from the ground there was swirling, boiling dust. Soon afterward small fires sprang up on the edge of town but the town was entirely obscured. We stayed around two or three minutes and by that time the smoke had risen to 40,000 feet. As we watched, the top of the white cloud broke off and another soon formed.
~ Capt. William B. Parsons (of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima), The Associated Press (8 August 1945). 'My God'

The worst-case scenario I see is a major nuclear arms race unfolding in the Pacific. That's not a forecast, that's a logical train of events.
~ William J. Perry, Reuters (3 June 2003). Time Running Out for North Korea Solution -- Perry

But although the wisdom and morality of mankind have been against war, war goes on; the moment it breaks out in any country, all the forces of sentimentalism are employed to glorify, yes, even to sanctify its course. The first great casualty is Reason.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, War.

A popular fantasy is to suppose that flying machines could be used to drop dynamite on the enemy in time of war.
~ William H. Pickering

It was only the beeping reality of Sputnik that suddenly made the threat of intercontinental atomic warfare with ballistic rockets more than a science fiction story.
~ William H. Pickering

Out of that bungled, unwise war
An alp of unforgiveness grew.
~ William Charles Franklyn Plomer, from The Fivefold Screen (1932). The Boer War

War represents a fierce test of a man's mettle. As Vietnam history is rewritten, the side you took has become a defining moment.
~ William Pollack, Newsweek (2 July 2001).

Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
~ Colonel William Prescott, at The Battle for Bunker Hill (17 June 1775)

Asking Europe to disarm is like asking a man in Chicago to give up his life insurance.
~ Will Rogers

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it. . . . You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.
~ Will Rogers

I have a scheme for stopping war. It's this -- no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.
~ Will Rogers

If they really want to honor the boys, why don't they let them sit in the stands and have the people march by?
~ Will Rogers (after WWI).

If you want to know when a war might be coming, you just watch the U.S. and see when it starts cutting down on its defenses. It's the surest barometer in the world.
~ Will Rogers

People talk peace. But men give their life's work to war. It won't stop 'til there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war.
~ Will Rogers

That's one good thing about wars. It takes smarter men to figure out who loses 'em than it does to start 'em.
~ Will Rogers

You can be killed just as dead in an unjustified war as you can in one protecting your own home.
~ Will Rogers

You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.
~ Will Rogers, in The New York Times (23 December 1929).

As a lover of truth, the national propaganda of all the belligerent nations sickened me. As a lover of civilization, the return to barbarism appalled me.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, (of World War I), The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, vol. 2, Chapter 1 (1968)

I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, (of World War I), vol. 2, Chapter 1 (1968)

It's coexistence
Or no existence.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, Attributed

It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force. When I speak of an international government, I mean one that really governs, not an amiable facade like the League of Nations, or a pretentious sham like the United Nations under its present constitution.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (October 1946). The Atomic Bomb and the Prevention of War

People who are vigorous and brutal often find war enjoyable, provided that it is a victorious war and there is not too much interference with rape and plunder. This is a great help in persuading people that wars are righteous.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, from Unpopular Essays (1950). X: Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind

War does not determine who is right -- only who is left.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell

They dashed on towards that thin red line tipped with steel.
~ William Howard Russell, The British Expedition to the Crimea (1877)

Modern war needs modern lingo.
~ William L. Safire

Bill was the bravest of the lot
In our dare-devil Company.
That lad would rather die than yield;
His gore he glorified to spill,
And so in every battlefield
A hero in my eyes was Bill.
~ Robert William Service, Lyrics of a Low Brow (1951). My Hero

Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them.
~ William Henry Seward, Speech before the New York state legislature, Albany, NY (6 April 1848)

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act IV, scene i

Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act III, scene i

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me;
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act IV, scene iii

I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument?
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act IV, scene i

I dare not fight; but I will wink and hold out mine iron. It is a simple one; but what though?
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act II, scene i

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge
Cry "God for Harry! England and Saint George!"
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V

I speak of peace, while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height!
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act III, scene i

O war! thou son of Hell!
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

The period of thy tyranny approacheth.
On us thou canst not enter but by death,
For, I protest, we are well fortified,
And strong enough to issue out and fight.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part I

The purple testament of bleeding war.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II

[A] fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, (1861)

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, (1875)

Hold the fort! I am coming!
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Signaled to General Corse in Allatoona from the top of Kenesaw (5 October 1864)

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Address before the graduating class, Michigan Military Academy (19 June 1879)

If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter to Henry W. Halleck (4 September 1864).

In our Country . . . one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman

Newspaper correspondents with an army, as a rule, are mischievous. They are the world's gossips, pick up and retail the camp scandal, and gradually drift to the headquarters of some general, who finds it easier to make reputation at home than with his own corps or division. They are also tempted to prophesy events and state facts which, to an enemy, reveal a purpose in time to guard against it. Moreover, they are always bound to see facts colored by the partisan or political character of their own patrons, and thus bring army officers into the political controversies of the day, which are always mischievous and wrong. Yet, so greedy are the people at large for war news, that it is doubtful whether any army commander can exclude all reporters, without bringing down on himself a clamor that may imperil his own safety. Time and moderation must bring a just solution to this modern difficulty.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs (c. 1870)

The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Speech in St. Louis (20 July 1865).

There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Speech at Columbus, OH (11 August 1880)

This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter to General Halleck (1865).

War is at its best barbarism.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter to General Steele.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter to Mayor James M. Calhoun of Atlanta and others (12 September 1864).

It always helps an army to have an omniscient, omnipotent war-god on its side.
~ William Sierichs, Jr.

He's praying, comrades; 'tis not strange;
The man that's fighting day by day,
May well, when night comes, take a change,
And down upon his knees to pray.
~ William Gilmore Simms, from The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution (1835). The Swamp Fox

In a battle nothing is ever as good or as bad as the first reports of excited men would have it.
~ Sir William Joseph Slim

There is only one principle of war and that's this. Hit the other fellow, as quickly as you can, as hard as you can, where it hurts him most, when he aint lookin'.
~ Sir William Joseph Slim

I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war -- the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men; and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.
~ William (W.) Eugene Smith (of photographs during World War II), W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs and Notes (1969).

The men of peace outlive the men of war; --
These for a day -- but those forever are!
~ William Wye Smith, from The Poems Of William Wye Smith (1888). Peace

Was it you or your brother who was killed in the war?
~ Reverand William A. Spooner (i.e., a spoonerism)

Negations seldom stir enthusiasm.
~ W.T. (William Thomas) Stead, To The Picked Half Million (1913).

The soldier headed out to war is in the best position. He can unleash his aggressions on his enemy and thus serve his fatherland.
~ Wilhelm Stekel, Unser Seelenleben im Kriege. Psychologische Betrachtungen eines Nervenarztes (Berlin, 1916)

If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men are ever subject, because doctrines get inside a man's reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines.
~ William Graham Sumner, from War, And Other Essays (1911). Essay I. War (1903)

War arises from the competition of life, not from the struggle for existence.
~ William Graham Sumner, from War, And Other Essays (1911). Essay I. War (1903)

No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could more astonish the world than our declaration of war against Holland in 1672.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, Memoirs from 1672 to 1679.

Cheer Up! 'tis no use to be glum, boys
'Tis written, since fighting begun,
That sometimes we fight and sometimes we conquer,
And sometimes we fight and we run.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray

Tell me what find we to admire
In epaulets and scarlet coats --
In men, because they load and fire,
And know the art of cutting throats?
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Chronicle of the Drum

The world has battle-room for all.
Go fight and conquer if ye can.
But if ye rise or if ye fall,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman!
~ William Makepeace Thackeray

These acts are a declaration of war and I expect our government to respond accordingly. As far as I am concerned, we are at war with whichever groups or countries that are responsible for, or knew in advance about these attacks.
~ Bill Thomas, Statement regarding Tuesday, September 11, 2001 (12 September 2001)

If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country -- Victory or Death.
~ Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis, Letter Appealing for Aid, Battle of The Alamo (24 February 1836)

Maybe the answer to Selective Service is to start everyone off in the army and draft them for civilian life as needed.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan, Half the Battle (1967).

I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy.
~ William C. Westmoreland

It may well be that between press and officials there is an inherent built in conflict of interest. There is something to be said for both sides, but when the nation is at war and men's lives are at stake, there should be no ambiguity.
~ General William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports (1976)

The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.
~ General William C. Westmoreland

War is fear cloaked in courage.
~ General William C. Westmoreland, (1966).

We'll blast them back into the stone ages!
~ General William C. Westmoreland

When we talk about this coalition, there is a sense in which it's useful, obviously, for banking systems, intelligence, police, landing rights, over flight rights and all of the rest. But what this war on terrorism comes down at the end to unilateralism by the United States in multilateralist drag, if you will permit me to say so.
~ George F. Will, CNN TV "Larry King Weekend" (14 October 2001).

Revisiting the Revolutionary War is a bracing reminder that the fate of a continent, and the shape of the modern world, turned on the free choices of remarkably few Americans defying an empire.
~ George F. Will

World War II was the last government program that really worked.
~ George F. Will

Every bullet has its billet.
~ William III (6 June 1765), in John Wesley Journal (1827)

The last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled or be wrapped up in cotton wool, because if I was to join the Army, I would want to go where my men went, and I'd want to do what they did. I would not want to be kept back for being precious, whatever - that's the last thing I would want.
~ Prince William, Interview with the British media (19 November 2004).

God doesn't start wars. That's the greatest load of nonsense. Mankind starts wars. But then we bless armies to go and kill in God's name. Somebody's got to blow that myth out of the water.
~ Betty Williams, PeaceJam Foundation (4 July 1995). An Interview with Betty Williams

And I build my peace with strength, that's the best weapon you've got.
~ Dar Williams, in The Honesty Room (1993 album). The Great Unknown

To have them kick in the door and come in screaming. I just couldn't control my emotions. I just started crying. It was the most beautiful thing to see those boys come in there, as professional as they were, as they had trained. I mean, it was quick, furious. I was speechless.
~ David S. Williams, CBS TV "60 Minutes II" (17 September 2003). Former POWs Tell Their Story

She comes, benign enchantress, heav'n born PEACE!
With mercy beaming in her radiant eye;
She bids the horrid din of battle cease,
And at her glance the savage passions die.
~ Helen Maria Williams, from Poems on Various Subjects. With introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France (1823). Ode to Peace

In a new world, where terrorism is a fact of life, the best response is an all-out response that makes the price of terrorism unbearably high for anyone considering terrorism.
~ Juan Williams, National Public Radio Where Do You Stand? An Essay by NPR's Juan Williams (14 September 2001)

Retreat hell! We just got here!
~ Lloyd Williams

War is increasingly becoming something that would be unsurvivable for the species itself.
~ Marianne Williamson, CNN TV "Larry King Weekend" (14 October 2001).

You are cordially invited to participate in this ceremony of dedication at Gettysburg, and after the oration, to set apart formally these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.
~ Judge David Wills, official invitation to Abraham Lincoln to participate in the dedication of Gettysburg Memorial Cemetery (2 November 1863)

The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons.
~ Joseph C. Wilson 4th, Op-Ed Contributor, in The New York Times (6 July 2003). What I Didn't Find in Africa

Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems in Two Volumes (1807). Character of the Happy Warrior

And God would bid His warfare cease,
Saying all things were well;
And softly make a rosy peace,
A peace of Heaven with Hell.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Rose (1893). The Rose of Peace

But all that are killed in battle
Awaken to life again;
It is lucky that their story
Is not known among men.
~ William Butler Yeats, from In The Seven Woods (1904). The Rider From The North

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind,
In balance with this life, this death.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Wild Swans at Coole (1917). An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

The unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933). Byzantium

We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare.
~ William Butler Yeats, Meditations in Time of Civil War no. 6 (1928). The Stare's Nest by my Window

You are not an enemy combatant, you are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any army, you are a terrorist. To call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. . . . You are a terrorist, and we do not negotiate with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.
~ (U.S. District Court Judge) William G. Young, in The New York Times (31 January 2003). Unrepentant Shoe Bomber Sentenced to Life

Without a mother and child, there would be neither war nor peace.
~ William Zorach, Art Is My Life: The Autobiography of William Zorach (1967).