War Mongering Quotes

“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

“Wars are won with quills and ravens, wasn't that what you said?”
― George R.R. Martin

“As long as the peace-makers are armed with assault rifles, it's highly unlikely we'll ever have peace.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman, Kaya Abaniah and the Father of the Forest

“I have two tubes with ten paint pellets in each, so I assess the cost of each shot. I then think of how, despite being behind a tree, I was hit by someone I never saw. Maybe the same thing would happen again and I’d return home with two tubes of souvenirs. Or maybe I’d just shoot them all off against a tree.

I test my gun. I aim, squeeze the trigger, and the shell tumbles out like a lead weight. I adjust the air pressure. Try again. Same results. If the gun came equipped with a “pow” sign it’d be more lethal.”
― Gary J Floyd

“Can 100 people devoted to war be more effective than 1 million people devoted to peace? Of course it is possible, because 100 people who devote themselves to war mean morally rotten people, and the evil methods used by morally rotten people are much more effective than the well-intentioned and sometimes even childish methods of peace-loving people!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“There comes a moment in every escalation toward war when both sides convince their people that ONLY the enemy - is killing civilians. From that moment on, the people no longer question what is being done in their name - not because they understand the facts, but because they have been taught which side to trust. Moral superiority is no longer something to be earned through law abidance or actions that uphold compassion ; it becomes something inherited, assumed, and unquestioned. It is granted by the language of nationalism - a language that turns mere belonging into heroism, and turns difference into danger.

In such moments, truth itself is redefined. It is no longer discovered through evidence or deliberation, but delivered by authority. The state becomes not just a source of power, but the source of reality. Its statements are accepted not because they are verified, but because they are voiced. To believe is an act of loyalty. To question is an act of betrayal.

In the nationalist imagination, the state never chooses violence. It is always forced into it - reluctantly, regretfully, righteously. The bombs it drops are described as ‘surgical,’ never aggressive. Its silences are portrayed as ‘stoic,’ never evasive. Its violations of international law are framed as necessary exceptions- forced by an enemy so evil, so unprecedented, that no rule could have possibly anticipated it. The UN Charter, and every other instrument of global order, is dismissed as naïve when faced with such supposed monstrosity.

Those at the borders lose their lives. Those in the working class lose their livelihoods. But they are told they have gained something greater - they are told they have won their pride.

This is the choreography of belief - a theatre where justice is no longer demonstrated but declared, and in which power no longer submits to truth, but bends truth to its design. Both sides claim moral victory. Both rewrite their schoolbooks. And in the quiet aftermath, what cannot be reconciled with the myth of righteousness is left outside the margins of memory. This is civilizational narcissism: a worldview that no longer asks what is right, but only what is useful- even if it means forgetting what must never be forgotten.”
― Adeel Ahmed Khan