12 quotes
When it comes down to it, the root cause of war is always population pressure no matter what other factors enter in.
Time for the Stars (1956)
If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgment.
Farnham's Freehold (1964)
It takes all nations to keep the peace, but it only takes one to start a war.
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
Starship Troopers (1959)
But I do not willingly involve us in nationalistic wars; the side of the angels is seldom self-evident.
Friday (1982)
Swordplay is an odd thing; you don't really use your mind, it is much too fast for that. Your wrist thinks and tells your feet and body what to do, bypassing your brain.
The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation.
We have everything for a still; I stocked the items to build one if a war came along—not just for us but because liquor is money in any primitive society.
Farnham's Freehold (1964)
The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force.
I said that "Patriotism" is a way of saying "Women and children first." And that no one can force a man to feel this way. Instead he must embrace it freely.
The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973)
He was still having trouble readjusting. Wars were something you studied, not something that actually happened.
Between Planets (1951)
There is a go-for-broke tactic, "the target," taught by the best swordmasters, which consists in headlong advance with arm, wrist, and blade in full extension — all attack and no attempt to parry. But it works only by perfect timing when you see your opponent slacken up momentarily. Otherwise it is suicide.