Just War Quotes

“The wars of Israel were the only 'holy wars' in history... there can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“I find it significant that most of the people who believe in just war have never fought in one; examples: Barack W. Bush and George H. Obama.”
― Michel Templet

“They undertook to fight against the Turk under the name of Christ, and taught men and stirred them up to do this, as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks, who were enemies of Christ; and this is straight against Christ’s doctrine and name. It is against His doctrine, because He says that Christians shall not resist evil, shall not fight or quarrel, not take revenge or insist on rights. It is against His name, because in such an army there are scarcely five Christians, and perhaps worse people in the eyes of God than are the Turks; and yet they would all bear the name of Christ. This is the greatest of all sins and one that no Turk commits, for Christ’s name is used for sin and shame and thus dishonored. This would be especially so if the pope and the bishops were in the war, for they would put the greatest shame and dishonor on Christ’s name, since they are called to fight against the devil with the Word of God and with prayer, and would be deserting their calling and office and fighting with the sword against flesh and blood. This they are not commanded, but forbidden to do.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“Is it morally acceptable to murder one hundred innocent people in the process of catching a serial killer who has murdered ten people? If you think World War II was justified, your answer should be yes.”
― Michel Templet

“For many people, that war [WWII] is called the “good war” because it was fought against a regime guilty of unspeakable atrocities. But the Allies did not enter the war to save Jews from extermination. The United States entered the war after it was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor and, as a nation, we certainly did not do as much as we should have to save the Jewish population of Europe. The basic question is still with us: Is it right, justifiable, to intervene in a nation’s internal activities when those activities include genocide, ethnic cleansing, or some other demonstrable harm to a subset of its people?”
― Nel Noddings, Peace Education: How We Come to Love and Hate War

“If I were emperor, king, or prince in a campaign against the Turk, I would exhort my bishops and priests to stay at home and mind the duties of their office, praying, fasting, saying mass, preaching, and caring for the poor, as not only Holy Scripture, but their own canon law teaches and requires.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“I am asked if I think the war was a just war ... how can I answer? I was a boy born and raised in beautiful Leningrad, a boy who loved his parents and went obediently to school. A boy who was yanked out of that life and dumped in a strange land where life followed different rules.”
― Vladislav Tamarov, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

“How could there ever be a real moral reason for war?' Harper would ask rhetorically. 'It always comes down to someone’s greed. History is populated by the distorted tyrants and corrupt businessmen willing to trade a cup full of blood for a purse filled with gold.”
― Brandt Legg, The Last Librarian

“The action of forcing a conscientious objector to fight, in the name of peace or for gain, goes against their personal peace and can have unknown effects on the person and their surroundings.”
― Isabella Poretsis

“For I shall never advise a heathen or a Turk, let alone a Christian, to attack another or begin war.”
― Martin Luther

“According to John 6:15, He [Christ] fled and would not let Himself be made king; before Pilate He confessed, “My kingdom is not of this world”; and He bade Peter, in the garden, put up his sword, and said, “He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“If we will not learn out of the Scriptures, we must learn out of the Turk’s scabbard, until we find in our hurt that Christians are not to make war or resist evil. Fools must be chased with clubs.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“In the first place, it is certain that the Turk has no right or command to begin war and to attack lands that are not his. Therefore, his war is nothing else than outrage and robbery, with which God is punishing the world, as He often does through wicked knaves, and sometimes through godly people. For he does not fight from necessity or to protect his land in peace, as the right kind of a ruler does, but like a pirate or highwayman, he seeks to rob and damage other lands, who are doing and have done nothing to him.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“Some indeed have invented outrageous lies about the Turks in order to stir up us Germans against them, but there is no need for lies; the truth is all too great.”
― Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk

“Bfore Venus, censorious; before Mars, timid.”
― Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations

“Before Venus, censorious; before Mars, timid.”
― Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations

“There is no such thing as a "just" war. It's just war. And it's antithetical to the Gospel.”
― David D. Flowers