If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

Freedom is not only the absence of being in jail, just as it is always said that peace is not merely the absence of war.

In the days and in the years that are to come we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war. We can and we will achieve such a peace.

I know something about that war, and I never want to see that history repeated. But, my fellow Americans, it certainly can be repeated if the peace-loving democratic nations again fearfully practice a policy of standing idly by while big aggressors use armed force to conquer the small and weak.

Once you are so unfortunate as to be drawn into a war, no price is too great to pay for an early and victorious peace.