War Veteran Quotes:

I am a Korean War veteran. I support our troops as much as anyone in this body, but I do so by advocating redeployment out of Iraq as soon as it can be safely done.

- John Conyers

topic: War, Iraq, Support, Korean War, Support Our Troops

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

- John Stuart Mill

topic: Freedom, War, Fighting, Soldiers At War, Ugly Things

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

source: Speech in Ottawa on January 10, 1946. "Eisenhower Speaks: Dwight D. Eisenhower in His Messages and Speeches". Book edited by Rudolph L. Treuenfels, 1948.

topic: Peace, Hate, Military, Soldiers At War, World War 2

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

- Michel de Montaigne

topic: Memorial Day, Courage, Veterans Day, Memorial Day Thank You, War Veteran

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

topic: Inspirational, Life, Basketball, Marathon Runners, Marathon Running

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other ***** die for his.

- George S. Patton

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Country, War, Soldiers At War, Inspirational Military, Military Force

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.

- Sun Tzu

source: Sun Tzu “Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Illustrated)”, Charles River Editors

topic: Thank You, Veterans Day, Art, War Strategy, War Veteran

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

- Mark Twain

topic: Thank You, Memorial Day, Courage, Independence Day Patriotic, Inspirational Patriotic

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'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

- George McGovern

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Dream, Peace, Military, Soldiers At War, Military Soldier

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

- Bertrand Russell

topic: Peace, War, Fighting, Make Peace Not War, Soldiers At War

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.

- Douglas MacArthur

topic: Veterans Day, Witty, Military, Military Veteran, War Veteran

My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place - police, firefighters and members of our armed forces.

- Sidney Sheldon

topic: Thank You, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day Thank You, Protect And Serve

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

- Mark Twain

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Positive, Inspirational Football, Marathon Runners

The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.

- Arthur Koestler

topic: Military, War, Men, Soldiers At War, War Veteran

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

- Ronald Reagan

source: United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1984). “Ronald Reagan”

topic: Veterans Day, Money, Peace, War Veteran, Great War

Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

- Chester W. Nimitz

topic: Military, Men, Common, Military Man, Military Soldier

John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.

- Isaac Asimov

topic: War, Records, World, Soldiers At War, War Of The Worlds

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: War, Home, America, War Veteran, Antiwar

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

topic: Life, Change, Wise, Military History, Military Leader

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

source: Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.69, Simon and Schuster

topic: Courage, Veterans Day, Strong, Strong Desire, Be Courageous

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.

- George Washington

topic: Military, War, People, Memorial Day Soldiers, Military Memorial

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: "Mother, what was war?"

- Eve Merriam

topic: Mother, Dream, Peace, Acts Of Violence, War Veteran

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

- Patrick Henry

topic: Inspirational, Courage, Veterans Day, Soldiers At War, Forged

Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

- Bernard Malamud

source: Bernard Malamud (2003). “The Natural: A Novel”, p.148, Macmillan

topic: Inspirational, Inspiring, Veterans Day, Memorial Day Heroes, War Veteran

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

- John Stuart Mill

source: "The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

topic: War, Patriotic, Thinking, Soldiers At War, Ugly Things

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

- Mahatma Gandhi

topic: Inspirational, Peace, War, Make Peace Not War, Just War

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

- George Washington

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Motivation, Soldiers At War, Inspirational Military

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Love, Peace, War, Make Peace Not War, True Peace

We make war that we may live in peace.

- Aristotle

topic: Strength, Veterans Day, Peace, War Veteran, Fighting Battles

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Inspirational, Spiritual, Peace, Make Peace Not War, Spirit And Soul

Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

topic: Veterans Day, Peace, War, Military Veteran, Support Our Troops

**** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

- David Farragut

source: At the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 ('torpedoes' were mines). Capt. A. T. Mahan 'Admiral Farragut' (1892) ch. 10

topic: War, Civil War, Speed, Military History, Military Soldier

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

- Plato

topic: Plato, War, Ends, Soldiers At War, Just War

There never was a good war or a bad revolution.

- Edward Abbey

source: Edward Abbey (1998). “The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel”, p.140, Macmillan

topic: Veterans Day, Peace, War, Causes Of War, War Cry

Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

- George Santayana

topic: Military, War, Philosophical, Soldiers At War, Just War

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

- Ernest Hemingway

topic: Inspirational, Military, War, Soldiers At War, Just War

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.

- George S. Patton

topic: War, 4th Of July, Men, Independence Day Patriotic, World War 2

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

- Cynthia Ozick

source: Jamake Highwater (1997). “The Mythology of Transgression: Homosexuality as Metaphor”, Oxford University Press, USA

topic: Thank You, Thanksgiving, Thankful, Spiritual Gratitude, Inspirational Gratitude

All of my high school male teachers were WWII and/or Korean War veterans. They taught my brothers and me the value of service to our country and reinforced what our dad had shown us about the meaning of service.

- Oliver North

topic: Country, Teacher, Veterans Day, Korean War, War Veteran

The Veteran's History Project, a nationwide volunteer effort to collect oral histories from America's war veterans, provides an avenue to do just that. Now in its fifth year, the Project has collected more than 40,000 individual stories.

- Spencer Bachus

topic: War, Years, America, Oral History, War Veteran

I'm reading a bunch of fiction by Afghan and Iraq War veterans for a New Yorker piece. There hasn't been that much, but it's starting to come out, and some of the fiction is really good.

- George Packer

source: Source: www.bostonglobe.com

topic: War, Reading, Iraq, War Veteran, Afghan

I've shared meditation with a lot of hip-hop artists, inmates, and returning war veterans with PTSD, as well. I feel like this dharma, this service is part of my job.

- Russell Simmons

source: Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

topic: Jobs, War, Artist, War Veteran, Ptsd

To the Cold War veterans here, know that your steadfast efforts preserved a delicate balance, and, because of you, the global war that many feared never came to pass. We are thankful for you, as we are for all the veterans here with us.

- Michael Mullen

topic: War, Effort, Victory, War Veteran, Cold War

As a Korean War Veteran, I know too well the troubling nature of war. This is why I will always support a diplomatic answer before military intervention.

- Charles Rangel

topic: Military, War, Support, Korean War, War Veteran

As any war veteran will tell you, there is a vast difference between preparing for battle and actually facing battle for the first time. You can be told that reading Victor Hugo will sap your will to live, but you can't understand what it means until you've read a few chapters and your eyes are glazed over and someone has to revive you with a defibrillator.

- Kevin Hearne

source: "Tricked". Book by Kevin Hearne, April 24, 2012.

topic: War, Reading, Mean, War Veteran, Defibrillators

I was a very ancient twelve; my views at that age would have done credit to a Civil War veteran. I am much younger now than I was at twelve or anyway, less burdened. The weight of the centuries lies on children, I'm sure of it.

- Flannery O'Connor

topic: Children, War, Lying, War Veteran

As a Korean War Veteran I know too well the troubling nature of war. This is why I will always support a diplomatic answer before military intervention.

- Charles Rangel

source: "A World Without Chemical Weapons" by Rep. Charles Rangel, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 14, 2013.

topic: Military, War, Support, Korean War, Military Intervention

. . .and every native has a story of winter – stories that usually begin, You call this a storm? And grow in the telling like battle tales shared by graying war veterans. It’s a peculiar character flaw to those of us from cold climates that we feel superior to those who have the sense to live elsewhere.

- Richard Paul Evans

topic: War, Character, Winter, War Veteran, Cold Climate