Arms Race Quotes:

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

- Carl Sagan

topic: Race, Two, Enemy, Petrol, Sagan

Bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us...No longer is the quest for disarmament a sign of weakness, (nor) the destruction of arms a dream - it is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Dream, War, Race, Arms Race

The nuclear arms race is like two people sitting in a pool of gasoline spending all their time making matches.

- John Denver

topic: Race, Two, People, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

- Winston Churchill

topic: Fun, Humorous, Race, Rubble, Arms Race

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

source: Speech in Washington, 16 Apr. 1953, in Public Papers of Presidents 1953 (1960) p. 182

topic: Peace, Children, Military, Hunger And Poverty, Make Love Not War

I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region.

- Robert M. Gates

topic: Thinking, Iran, Race, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

It seems to me we have been in a rhetorical arms race in this country, with each side unwilling to lay down its weapons for fear - usually justified - the other side would beat them to a pulp.

- Pat Sajak

topic: Country, Race, Arms, Pulp, Arms Race

I certainly wouldn't say that we loved the arms race. Trillions of dollars were used to stoke it. For our economy, which was smaller in size than the American economy, it was a burden. But one cannot agree with the statement that the arms race played the key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

- Mikhail Gorbachev

source: Interview with Amitabh Pal, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. November 12, 2003.

topic: Keys, Race, Dollars, Stoke, American Economy

We must shift the arms race into a 'peace race'.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”, p.214, Beacon Press

topic: Peace, Race, Arms, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms Race

So in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride - the temptation blithely to declare yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.

- Ronald Reagan

source: Remarks at Annual Convention of National Association of Evangelicals, Orlando, Fla., 8 Mar. 1983 See George Lucas 11

topic: Struggle, Pride, Race, Arms Race, Remove

The emotional security and political stability in this country entitle us to be a nuclear power.

- Anthony Mason

topic: Country, War, Emotional, Nuclear Power, Arms Race

But scientists on both sides of the iron curtain played a very significant role in maintaining the momentum of the nuclear arms race throughout the four decades of the Cold War.

- Joseph Rotblat

source: Joseph Rotblat, Daisaku Ikeda (2007). “A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat”, p.130, I.B.Tauris

topic: War, Heart, Race, Iron Curtain, Arms Race

The chief task was to stop the arms race before it brought utter disaster. However, after the collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, any rationale for having nuclear weapons disappeared.

- Joseph Rotblat

topic: Race, Unions, Arms, Soviet Union, Disintegration

Instead of starting a new nuclear arms race, now is the time to reclaim our Nation's position of leadership on nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

- Dianne Feinstein

topic: Race, Effort, Nuclear, Proliferation, Nuclear Proliferation

World War I broke out largely because of an arms race, and World War II because of the lack of an arms race.

- Herman Kahn

source: Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

topic: War, Race, World, Arms Race

I appeal to the responsibility of the blocs and the major powers, not to seek security in the arms race, but rather in a meeting for joint disarmament and arms limitations.

- Gustav Heinemann

topic: Responsibility, Race, Arms, Disarmament, Arms Race

I'm not an expert on the arms race.

- Abdul Kalam

topic: Race, Experts, Arms, Arms Race

To a considerable extent we are faced by a technology arms race with terrorists. The communications revolution has made it easier for terrorist groups to reach out to vulnerable individuals with their violent extremist ideology and propaganda. It has also facilitated fundraising, recruitment and training.

- Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones

topic: Communication, Technology, Race, Recruitment, Arms Race

Long before the terrifying potential of the arms race was recognized, there was a widespread instinctive abhorrence of nuclear weapons, and a strong desire to get rid of them.

- Joseph Rotblat

topic: Strong, Race, Long, Abhorrence, Arms Race

Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.133, Beacon Press

topic: Peace, Struggle, Creativity, Make Peace Not War, World Power

The arms race is worse than it ever was, the dumping of creation down a military rat hole is worse than it ever was, the wars across the earth are worse than they ever were.

- Daniel Berrigan

source: "A Conversation With Daniel Berrigan". Interview with Alan Fox, www.rattle.com. January 30, 1999.

topic: Military, War, Race, Arms Race

The United Nations organization has proclaimed 1979 as the Year of the Child. Are the children to receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance?

- Pope John Paul II

topic: Children, Race, Years, Arms Race

I most sincerely wish that the world in which we live be free from the threat of a nuclear holocaust and from the ruinous arms race. It is my cherished desire that peace be not separated from freedom which is the right of every nation. This I desire and for this I pray.

- Lech Walesa

topic: Race, Holocaust, Desire, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms Race

Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.

- Martin Amis

topic: Weapons, Enough, Arms Race

Perhaps the grimmest aspect of this great paradox is that the very nations that are chiefly responsible for starting and for maintaining the Disarmament Conference are also the nations that have begun a new arms race.

- Arthur Henderson

topic: Race, Maintaining, Arms, Arms Race

I would die for my country, but I could never let my country die for me.

- Neil Kinnock

source: Speech at Labour Party Conference, 30 Sept. 1986, in Guardian 1 Oct. 1986

topic: Country, Arms Race

The deadly arms race, and the huge resources it absorbs, have too long overshadowed all else we must do. We must prevent that arms race from spreading to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space.

- John F. Kennedy

source: Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.26, Best Books on

topic: Race, Space, Long, Outer Space, Arms Race

The arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves.

- Martin Amis

source: "Einstein's Monsters". Book by Martin Amis, Introduction: "Thinkability", April 30, 1987.

topic: Race, Nuclear, Arms, Arms Race, Nuclear Weapons

Everyone's heard about the military-industrial complex, but they know very little about the medical-industrial complex...(in) a medical arms race...

- Jerry Brown

topic: Military, Dark, Race, Military Industrial Complex, Arms Race

My activities, for which I gratefully accept this Award, are today what they have been for over thirty-five years and will be for the rest of my life: to counter governmental secrecy about the nuclear arms race that threatens the survival of life on earth; and to help build a world movement that will prevent a first use since Nagasaki of nuclear explosions, prevent or end interventions that could lead to such an event, and bring about a world free of nuclear weapons.

- Daniel Ellsberg

topic: Awards, Race, Years, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

The Iranian regime supports violent extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear capability that could spark a dangerous arms race and raise the prospect of a transfer of nuclear know-how to terrorists. Its president denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The danger from Iran is grave, it is real.

- Barack Obama

source: "The Iranian Revolution". "Rear Vision" with Annabelle Quince, www.abc.net.au. February 11, 2009.

topic: Real, Israel, Iran, Iranian, Transfers

My generation has failed to stop the arms race. But it's really the men who have failed. Now it's up to the women, and I believe they can do it.

- Gene La Rocque

topic: Believe, Men, Race, My Generation, Arms Race

Why I oppose the nuclear-arms race: I prefer the human race.

- Edward Abbey

source: Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.20, RosettaBooks

topic: Race, Nuclear, Arms, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

Our biggest national security threat is the environmental destruction of our planet and the arms race with ourselves.

- Jello Biafra

source: "John Bolton CPAC Speech Lambasts Obama". www.huffingtonpost.com. March 6, 2014.

topic: Race, Environmental, Arms, Environmental Destruction, Arms Race

Because there is global insecurity, nations are engaged in a mad arms race, spending billions of dollars wastefully on instruments of destruction, when millions are starving. And yet, just a fraction of what is expended so obscenely on defense budgets would make the difference in enabling God's children to fill their stomachs, be educated, and given the chance to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

- Desmond Tutu

source: Desmond Tutu's Nobel Lecture in Oslo, Norway, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1984.

topic: Children, Real, Educational, Hunger And Poverty, Hunger Poverty

...convince all nuclear powers, including those which have been more reluctant up to now, of the necessity to respect the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become fully aware of the profound truth of the following conclusion which the United Nations approved by unanimity four years ago: "Mankind is confronted with a choice: we must halt the arms race and proceed to disarmament or face annihilation".

- Alfonso Garcia Robles

topic: Years, Race, Profound, Nuclear Disarmament, Profound Truth

Russia doesn't want any arms race. Russia would not engage in the arms race. We have enough technological means to provide not very expensive answer to the efforts to build missile defense.

- Sergey Lavrov

topic: Mean, Russia, Race, Missile Defense, Arms Race

The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all.

- William J. Clinton

source: Clinton, William J. (1994). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993”, p.2, Best Books on

topic: Race, World, Arms, World Economy, Arms Race

Without a deal [with Iran], the international sanctions regime will unravel with little ability to reimpose them. With this deal, we have the possibility of peacefully resolving a major threat to regional and international security. Without a deal, we risk even more war in the Middle East and other countries in the region would feel compelled to pursue their own nuclear programs, threatening a nuclear arms race in the most volatile region in the world.

- Barack Obama

source: Source: www.washingtonpost.com

topic: Country, War, Race, Arms Race, Regions

Donald Trump is the one who said if somebody really wants an arms race, we'll drown him.

- Newt Gingrich

source: Source: www.spiegel.de

topic: Race, Want, Arms, Arms Race

I believe that the politics of intervention and the Kosovo war prompted a fresh resumption of the arms race worldwide.

- Paul Virilio

source: Source: ctheory.net

topic: War, Believe, Race, Kosovo, Resumption

Every day I am being told to sign up for Tumblr, Yammer, Friendfeed, Plaxo, Last.fm, ping.fm or the hot social-media tool du jour that happened to get mentioned on Mashable.com. It is like a social-media arms race. Each one of these new tools is like a cool new night club. Hot today, gone tomorrow, replaced with something else.

- Mark McKinnon

topic: Night, Media, Race, Arms Race, Ping

Our tolerance of the intolerable found a low threshold as early as the late 1950s with the grotesque excesses of McCarthyism, which destroyed so many honest lives, and then with the insane nuclear arms race and confrontations.

- Pankaj Mishra

topic: Race, Tolerance, Insane, Mccarthyism, Arms Race

Deterrence failed completely as a guide in setting rational limits on the size and composition of military forces, spurring an insatiable arms race with a reckless proliferation of the most destructive power ever unleashed, tailored for delivery by a vast array of vehicles to a stupefying array of targets.

- George Lee Butler

topic: Military, Race, Target, Destructive Power, Deterrence

The alternative, no limits on Iran's nuclear program, no inspections, an Iran that's closer to a nuclear weapon, the risk of regional nuclear arms race, and the greater risk of war - all that would endanger our [American] security.

- Barack Obama

source: Press Conference by the President, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. July 15, 2015.

topic: War, Race, Iran, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

The fact that many private expenditures are mutually offsetting actually happens to constitute a remarkably good bit of fiscal news. Mutually offsetting spending patterns are wasteful in the same way that military arms races are. In such situations, if each party spends less, nothing is sacrificed, yet resources are freed up that can be put to much better uses.

- Robert H. Frank

source: Source: bobmorris.biz

topic: Arms Race

I think it's yet to be seen how that is going to shape up. But I can tell we all know that President-elect [Donald] Trump doesn't like the Iran deal, thinks it's a terrible document, thinks it will create a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, which it already is beginning to do.

- Reince Priebus

source: Source: abcnews.go.com

topic: Thinking, Race, Iran, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

Of course, one of the most disturbing features is the fact that while we have had roughly a ten year pause in the arms race where a lot of good work was done, this has now come to an end. For what we are seeing at the present time are new developments in anti-missile weaponry, drones, and so on.

- Paul Virilio

source: Source: ctheory.net

topic: Race, Years, Drones, Weaponry, Arms Race

That is potentially putting us all in the target hairs now is the reactivation of a new nuclear arms race. This arms race and this cold war is potentially hotter than it's been at any time in my lifetime.

- Jill Stein

source: Source: www.cpa-connecticut.com

topic: War, Hair, Race, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms

I agree that we need a working relationship with Russia to deescalate a nuclear arms race, to resolve the crisis in Syria.

- Katrina vanden Heuvel

topic: Russia, Race, Arms, Arms Race, Nuclear Arms