Michael Herr Quotes

Violence and war lead only to death.

Peace is only better than war when it's not hell too. War being hell makes sense.

Peace for any prolonged period of time is impossible. Humans have a natural thirst for chaos and war is the most readily available form of chaos.

The present war is the saturation point in violence. It spells, to my mind, also its doom.

It's very unfortunate that war has always been and probably always will be a part of human beings on this planet. It's a terrible thing.

What’s so civil about war anyway?

War...is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer.

War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it.

Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.

We must conquer war or war will conquer us.

War stirs in men's hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny .. .Time and time again it has destroyed all ordered living, devastated hope, and put the prophets to death.

War is the antithesis of all our teaching. It breaks all the commandments; it makes rich men poor, and strong men weak. It makes well men sick, and by it living men are changed to dead men.

War destroys, kills, impoverishes. Lord, give us your peace!

Listen up—there’s no war that will end all wars,’ Crow tells me. ‘War breeds war. Lapping up the blood shed by violence, feeding on wounded flesh. War is a perfect, self-contained being. You need to know that.

True wars are never won.

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.

It is nothing but fanaticism and beautiful soulism to expect very much (or even, much only) from humanity when it has forgotten how to wage war.

The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending.

After a lifetime of war-watching, I see war as an endemic human disease, and governments are the carriers.

There is no good war.

Fly from wrath; sad be the sights and bitter fruits of war; a thousand furies wait on wrathful swords.

One war only breeds another.

When people go at war they cheapen things.

It is fear which leads us to war, ... It is fear which leads us to believe that we must kill or be killed. Fear which leads us to attack those who have not attacked us. Fear which leads us to ring our nation in the very heavens with weapons of mass destruction.

War is, we have been forced to admit, even in the face of its huge place in our civilization, an asocial trait.