War Quotes
Two of the best-known lines about war are flagged as misattributed, and both stories are worth knowing.
“In war, truth is the first casualty” is credited to Aeschylus, and sometimes to the US senator Hiram Johnson. It is not in his speeches. The first recorded use Wikiquote found is by Philip Snowden in July 1916, introducing a book by E. D. Morel, and he wrote “it has been said”, so it was probably already going around. Samuel Johnson made the same point in The Idler in 1758, about “the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages”.
“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than of war” is credited to Homer, and it is a misquotation of the Iliad (Book 13). In the original, most men prefer those things to war. It is the Trojans who can never get enough of fighting.
He (Patton) was tough. War is tough. Leaders have to be tough.
War calls for strategy: valour is less praiseworthy in a commander.
Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution.
Russians don’t wage war. We’re trying to preserve infrastructure and human lives.
Professional football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly, is lost.
"Women are the first victims of war, but they are the one and only key to peace."
Bello carpe rosas, laeta arripe lilia pace.
Pluck roses for war, for peace the smiling lily!
Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the most delicate operations in war.
There is only one favorable moment in war; talent consists in knowing how to seize it.
In war one must lean on an obstacle in order to overcome it.
In war, character and opinion make more than half of the reality.