46 quotes
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.
A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know. For it's a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
To me the scene possessed only the horror of a slaughter-house.
It is easier to make war than make peace.
The quantum of a hypothetical German civilization would not take us very far, because she is to-day still too close to barbarism.
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he’s not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning a ball stopped to think about his views of the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.
War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.
A collective tyrant, spread over the length and breadth of the land, is no more acceptable than a single tyrant ensconced on his throne.
The idea of force is deeply rooted in man, as in the whole universe. Law is controlled and ordered force.
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
All that I know I learned after I was thirty.
And Madly Teach : A Layman Looks at Public School Education (1949)
Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
The Unlawful Concert : An Account of the Presidio Mutiny Case (1970)
Whether we wish it or not, it is not the International Parliament of Geneva, subtle epitome of all the Parliaments of this world, with no executive powers, that will determine the peace of the future.
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
I do not know whether war is an interlude in peace, or whether peace is an interlude in war.
To ensure the execution of the Treaty [of Versailles] all we lacked later on was a statesman of some strength of purpose.
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
Neither treason, nor semi-treason: the war. Nothing but the war.
There is no passion like that of a functionary for his function.
The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998)
Peace or war, we are in the midst of a relentless struggle for power. Woe to the weak! Turn your back on the purveyors of soothing syrup!
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points; why, God Almighty has only Ten!
The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-worship (1941)
For the catastrophe of 1914 the Germans are responsible. Only a professional liar would deny this.
Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930)
America is far away and protected by the ocean, England could not be reached by Napoleon himself. You are sheltered, both of you; we are not.