Arleigh Burke Quotes

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. To keep the peace, we and our allies must be strong enough to convince any potential aggressor that war could bring no benefit, only disaster.

Only a strong America can guarantee a peaceful world.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

Keep America strong. Strong in our values, strong in our economy, and strong in our military might. We hope to never have to use our military strength, but the world counts on a strong America to keep the worst actors from doing the worst things.

America's families will be safer in a world where we're strong, where we're engaged, but where we're respected.

From a very strategic level, I believe the military is part of the solution to better outcomes around the world, but at a higher level, it's really about economies.

Our country has never started a war. Our sole objective is deterrence, the strength and capability it takes to prevent war.

Only by decisions of national policy based upon accurate information can we have the chance that peace will endure.

Any idea that you can have a league for security is nuts, and all people who favor it are potential murderers… as long as man is man, there will be war and the only way to avoid trouble is to have the best army and navy, which we now have.

Disarment ... is a continuing imperative.

In our globalized world, our domestic prosperity depends heavily on the world economy, which, of course, requires stability and order. Who provides that stability and order? The U.S. military.

Occasional war is one of the rigorous instruments in the hands of Providence to give tone to the character of nations.

Isn't it strange how the leaders of nations can talk so eloquently about peace while they prepare for war? ... There is no way to make peace while preparing for war.

Peace is hard work and we must not allow people to forget it.

I considered the prevention of war as the test of our security policy; in addition to being able to rapidly and forcefully end any war forced upon us.

Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation.

When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger.

Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are Many things More valuable than Peace, and many Things Much worse than war. The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire belongs to the First Class, the Occupation of Turkey by Russia belongs to the Second.

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it. Prevention must be our overriding objective. It can be done. Surrendering to the inevitability of combat only paves the way for its occurring.

The longing for peace is rooted in the hearts of all men. But the striving, which at present has become so insistent, cannot lay claim to such an ambition as leading the way to eternal peace, or solving all disputes among nations.

Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

We would fight not for the political future of a distant city, rather for principles whose destruction would ruin the possibility of peace and security for the peoples of the earth.

I've been to many countries and watched a number of conflicts or their residue, and I've served in the military.

From 8,000 miles away... I would not judge a fellow soldier from a friendly nation and how they are employing their resources.