Best lessons & war Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The only lesson to extract from any civil war is that it's pointless and futile and ugly, and that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about it. There are heroes, but the causes are never heroic.”

War Causes Hero Lessons Ugly Civil War Heroic Pointless Glamorous

Author:Anthony Minghella

“Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.”

Men War Friendship Cities Enemy Knowledge Learning Building Wall Lessons Ships Foe

Author:Aristophanes

“So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored.”

Should Firsts Important War Fighting Lessons Vietnam Troops Unjust Honored Casualties Unwise Important Lessons American Troops Unjust War

Author:Paul Begala

“The history of the genocide perpetrated during the Second World War does not belong to the past only. It is a ‘living history’ that concerns us all, regardless of our background, culture, or religion. Other genocides have occurred after the Holocaust, on several continents. How can we draw better lessons from the past?”

World Doe War Past Culture Lessons Draws Concern Backgrounds War Of The Worlds Genocide Holocaust Continents Second World War

Author:Irina Bokova

“The great lesson to be learned in the battered towns of England and the ruined cities of Germany is that the best way to win a war is to prevent it from occurring.”

Way War Winning Cities Lessons England Towns Statements Best Way Germany Reports September Ruined Strategic Bombing Surveys Battered Summary Lessons To Be Learned

Author:George C. Marshall

“I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.”

Humans War Lessons Capable

Author:Maya Angelou

“Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by war.”

Men War Teaching Lessons Election

Book:Lincoln on War

Source: Lincoln on War

“It was an old lesson learned by governments: that war solves problems of control.”

War Problem Government Lessons Solve Lesson Learned

Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

“The true lesson of the Vietnam War is: certainty of purpose and ruthlessness of execution win wars.”

War Purpose Winning Peace Lessons Certainty Vietnam Execution Vietnam War Ruthlessness

Author:Ronald Reagan

“Southerners, whose ancestors a hundred years ago knew the horrors of a homeland devastated by war, are particularly determined that war shall never come to us again. All Americans understand the basic lessons of history: that we need to be resolute and able to protect ourselves, to prevent threats and domination by others.”

Needs Years War Able Lessons Horror Protect Hundred Years Ago Threat Determined Ancestor Domination Homeland Devastated Resolute Southerner Arms Race

Book:Jimmy Carter

Source: Jimmy Carter

“... women learned one important lesson--namely, that it is impossible for the best of men to understand women's feelings or the humiliation of their position. When they asked us to be silent on our question during the War, and labor for the emancipation of the slave, we did so, and gave five years to his emancipation and enfranchisement.... I was convinced, at the time, that it was the true policy. I am now equally sure that it was a blunder.”

“One of the greatest things that ever taught me a super lesson was when I seen a baby come out of my woman's womb. Seeing this war that could end with both lives being lost, or both lives being made, gave me an enlightenment of life itself. It sparked my whole mind to a whole other level of living. And if I never would have seen it, I never would have understood life. I never would have appreciated life.”

Ifs Mind Made War Ends Whole Lost Levels Seeing Taught Baby Lessons Enlightenment Understood Appreciated Womb

Author:RZA

“If there was one lesson to be drawn from Bush's appearance (on 'Meet the Press') it's that he doesn't have to be forthcoming or honest. And he's the first to tell you why. (Bush:) 'I'm a war president.' He added: 'I guess I should have told you that back in 2000.'”

Ifs Should Firsts War President Honest Lessons Should Have Presses Appearance Forthcoming

Author:Jon Stewart

“The real lesson of 9/11 that I think we have still to learn is that this is a world of interdependence, in which all of the challenges of environment and climate change, of jobs, of disease, of war and terrorism, are cross-border problems that cannot be met one nation at a time.”

Thinking World Stills War Real Problem Jobs Nations Challenges Environment Lessons Mets Disease Crosses Climate Climate Change Terrorism Borders Interdependence

Author:Benjamin Barber

“First, separate ground, sea and air warfare is gone forever. This lesson we learned in World War II. I lived that lesson in Europe. Others lived it in the Pacific. Millions of American veterans learned it well.”

World Firsts Wells War Millions Gone Forever Air Sea Lessons Europe Defense War Of The Worlds World War Ii World War I Warfare Veteran Pacific American Veterans

Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower

“But all history has taught us the grim lesson that no nation has ever been successful in avoiding the terrors of war by refusing to defend its rights - by attempting to placate aggression.”

War Nations Successful Rights Taught Lessons Terror Defense Aggression Avoiding Attempting Grim Taught Us

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959

“There is a metaphysical honour in ending the world's absurdity. Conquest or play-acting, multiple loves, absurd revolt are tributes that man pays to his dignity in a campaign in which he is defeated in advance.... War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. "Art and nothing but art", said Nietzsche, "we have art in order not to die of the truth."”

“Even in a largely depoliticized society such as the United States, with no political parties or opposition press beyond the narrow spectrum of the business-dominated consensus, it is possible for populate action to have a significant impact on policy, though indirectly. That was an important lesson for the Indochina Wars.”

Important War States Action Political United Party United States Policy Lessons Impact Presses Significant Opposition Political Parties Consensus Spectrum Important Lessons Indochina

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.”

People Years Firsts War States Forget Lessons Mass Capable Liars Murderer Conspirators Indochina

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“I think most generations tend to learn the lesson of war the hard way. There is a deep attraction to the empowerment. Freud is right: societies either become locked in a collective embrace of Eros, as individuals do, or a collective embrace of Thanatos, the death instinct. They swing between the two. The notion that societies are naturally prone toward self-preservation is wrong. Self-annihilation can be deeply addictive, intoxicating, enticing. So I take a darker view of human nature, that war is probably always going to be with us. I think history bears me out.”

“The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The United States began as a community of people who wanted to worship God as they chose. . . Man does not live by bread alone. Those in the United States whose desire to create a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's was should study this Cold War lesson closely. Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded by 'one nation under God.'”

“Whoever thinks war allows for lasting victories should take a look at European history books and learn their lesson.”

Thinking Should Looks Book War Victory Lessons Lasting History Books European History

Author:Frank-Walter Steinmeier

“Resort to force in the Great War (I) failed to bring tranquillity. Victory and defeat alike were sterile. That lesson the world should have learned.”

World Should War Force Victory Lessons Should Have Defeat Resorts Great War Tranquillity Victory And Defeat

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The basic cause of all our difficulties is immaturity. That's why I talk so much about peace within ourselves as a step toward peace in our world. If we were mature, war would not be possible and peace would be assured. In our immaturity we do not know the laws of the universe, and we think evil can be overcome by more evil. One symptom of our immaturity is greed, making it difficult for us to learn the simple lesson of sharing.”

Ifs Thinking Knows World War Would Be Law Universe Evil Causes Difficult Simple Steps Lessons Overcoming Difficulty Greed Mature Our World Symptoms Assured Immaturity Peace Within

Author:Peace Pilgrim

“When I was growing up, there was a man who gave me lessons and things. I'm very dyslexic so he used to give me extra reading and writing. And he always knew that I was interested in stuff but he never told me that he was in the Second World War himself. One day he gave me his helmet that he had worn through the North Africa Campaign. It was just before he died. So I've got his helmet. That was pretty special to me.”

“The art of the indirect approach can only be mastered, and its full scope appreciated, by study of and reflection upon the whole history of war. But we can at least crystallize the lessons into two simple maxims- one negative, the other positive. The first is that, in face of the overwhelming evidence of history, no general is justified in launching his troops to a direct attack upon an enemy firmly in position. The second, that instead of seeking to upset the enemy's equilibrium by one's attack, it must be upset before a real attack is, or can be successfully launched”

“The mythology of the Reagan presidency is that he induced the collapse of the Soviet Union by luring it into unsustainable military spending and wars: should there come a point when we think about applying that lesson to ourselves?”

Thinking Should War Military Lessons Unions Spending Mythology Soviet Collapse Presidency Soviet Union Military Spending

Author:Glenn Greenwald

“This is the true lesson of our history: war, preparation for war, and foreign military interventions have served for the most part not to protect us, as we are constantly told, but rather to sap our economic vitality and undermine our civil and economic liberties.”

War Liberty Economic Military Lessons Protect Preparation Vitality Intervention Sap Military Intervention

Author:Robert Higgs

“The only important lesson from the Vietnam War is this: Democrats lose wars.”

Important War Loses Lessons Democrat Vietnam Vietnam War Important Lessons

Book:Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism

Source: Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism

“I think, while it is true that the Hillary Clinton and I voted differently on the war in Iraq, what is important is that we learn the lesson of the war in Iraq. And that lesson is intrinsic to my foreign policy if elected president, is the United States cannot do it alone. We cannot be the policeman of the world. We are now spending more I believe than the next eight countries on defense. We have got to work in strong coalition with the major powers of the world and with those Muslim countries that are prepared to stand up and take on terrorism.”

“The question's whether or not there's an American interest in the Civil War [in Syria]. The question is whether or not a military strike on [Bashar] Assad will cause him to be encouraged to use more weapons or discouraged. It's easy enough to say - and the president [Barack Obama] says though this will teach him a lesson - but his military strike is intended not to target him individually, not to bring about regime change.”

War Enough Use Causes Easy President Interest Teach Military Lessons Weapons Strikes Barack Civil War Target Regimes Syria Discouraged President Barack Obama Assad Be Encouraged Regime Change

Author:Rand Paul

“I think what Mr. Trump has made clear is that he would not undertake optional wars, what I have called wars of choice, a la, say Iraq in 2003 or Libya, for the purposes of transforming another country. It's not clear whether Hillary Clinton, if she were to have the opportunity, would do such a thing again or whether she would have taken a - the lesson from both Iraq and Libya that we ought not to be undertaking those kinds of wars of choice.”

Ifs Thinking Kind Made War Country Purpose Choices Opportunity Taken Clear Ought Trump Lessons Clinton Iraq Transforming Undertakings Libya Optional

Author:Richard N. Haass

“, I'm going to reserve judgment on [Rex] Tillerson. But I'll ask him the same question I've asked the others: do you understand the historic lesson that the Iraq war was a failure, a strategic mistake, that's what Donald Trump says.”

War Asks Mistake Trump Lessons Judgment Iraq Reserves Historic Strategic Iraq War

Author:Rand Paul

“[I was filmed] against a blue screen [in the Star Wars]. All the rest came later, in Lucasland. They did have me take gun lessons, though. I went to the same guys who taught Robert De Niro for Taxi Driver.”

War Guy Stars Taught Lessons Gun Blue Screens Drivers Taxi De Niro

Author:Carrie Fisher

“American imperialism has suffered a stunning defeat in Indochina. But the same forces are engaged In another war against a much less resilient enemy, the American people. Here, the prospects for success are much greater. The battleground is ideological, not military. At stake are the lessons to be drawn from the American war in Indochina; the outcome will determine the course and character of new imperial ventures.”

“One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.”

War Effects Military Higher Terrible Lessons Conflict Negative Soldier Iraq Vietnam Bloody Wounded Vietnam War Coffins Banned Depiction Lesson Learned Wounded Soldier

Author:Walter Dean Myers

“The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the Cold War, is that the engine of capitalism - the individual - is mightier than any collective.”

War Individual Cold Lessons Capitalism Collectives Engines American History Cold War Abiding

Author:Rand Paul

“I believe that democracies do not go to war; that's the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community's best guarantee of stability in Asia.”

Thinking World Believe War I Believe Community Democracy Lessons Democratic Guarantees Stability Asia Pakistan

Author:Benazir Bhutto

“Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently.”

Men Want War Reason Fighting Fun Boys Lessons Notion Convince Abiding Saddest

Author:Kate DiCamillo

“I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war...suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.”

War Suffering Fighting Peace Loss Generations Lessons Illusion Anti War Antiwar Doomed

Author:Philip Caputo

“I deserve to be happy and I think a lot of people stay in relationships for wrong reasons and instead of just looking at each other and just saying, 'you know, it's like sands of the hourglass, we learned our lessons, we can end in war or we can end in peace.'”

People Thinking Knows War Ends Reason Lessons Deserve Breakup Sand Just Saying Wrong Reasons Hourglass Deserve To Be Happy

Author:Jenny McCarthy

“The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.”

War Government Peace Lessons Statements Vietnam Anti War Antiwar

Author:J. William Fulbright

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