War Quotes

The motto of war is: "Let the strong survive; let the weak die." The motto of peace is: "Let the strong help the weak to survive."

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.

The work, my friend, is peace. More than an end of this war-an end to the beginnings of all wars.

You know, I am a juggler and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does. I may have one policy for Europe and one diametrically opposite for North and South America. I may be entirely inconsistent, and furthermore, I am perfectly willing to mislead and tell untruths if it will help win the war.

I can't believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy? The peace cannot include any continued despotism ... Equality of peoples involves the utmost freedom of competitive trade.

Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it to be.

We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini. So we are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.

I may never declare war; I may make war. If I were to ask Congress to declare war, they might argue about it for three months.

We know that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations with a joint plan. Germany and Italy consider themselves at war with the United States without even bothering about a formal declaration.

The United States will wage war but not declare it.

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.

And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons - at a fearful cost - and we shall profit by them.

Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace.

Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought, let him look to Norway. If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted, let him look to Norway.

You have heard for six years that I was about to plunge the Nation into war; that you and your little brothers would be sent to the bloody fields of battle in Europe; that I was driving the Nation into bankruptcy; and that I breakfasted every morning on a dish of 'grilled millionaire'.

War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of hostilities.

We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement.