Fran Lebowitz Quotes

To Arms! To Arms! 100 Men Needed.

There is now every indication that the whole force of ninety—four regiments called for by the President could be readily furnished by Illinois alone, and that the quota of six regiments assigned to Illinois could be obtained in Chicago almost at the tap of a drum.

Speeches made to the people are essential to the arousing of enthusiasm for a war.

The first and most imperative necessity in war is money, for money means everything else - men, guns, ammunition.

For all we have and are, For all our children’s fate, Stand up and take the war. The Hun is at the gate!

Any great war must be a popular movement.

At public ceremonies, moreover, mothers whose sons were conscripted for the business of fighting were lined up and “invited” to kiss the cannon already used or to be used in the execution of Italy’s imperial program in Ethiopia.

We entered the war with 12 divisions...now we have about 70.

Remember that everybody signed up as fast as they could in World War I because they thought the war would be over by Christmas.

Shall This Continue? Join the Navy.

This idle complaining, wishing, and lamenting, and boasting will answer no end. Something must be done! Must be done by you! Therefore instead of assuming the state of patriots and heroes at home, TO ARMS! and away to the field and prove your pretensions sincere. Let the thunder of this imprecation rouse you out of your ease and security...

All wars are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight?

Whenever armed forces . . . are used, the idea of combat must be present. . . . The end for which a soldier is recruited, clothed, armed, and trained, the whole object of his sleeping, eating, drinking, and marching is simply that he should fight at the right place and the right time.

Our way of getting an army able to fight the German army is to declare war on Germany just as if we had such an army, and then trust to the appalling resultant peril and disaster to drive us into wholesale enlistment.

Civilians are like beans; you buy 'em as needed for any job which merely requires skill and savvy. But you can't buy fighting spirit.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger.

On the whole, more men had perhaps escaped into the war than from it.

We used to be a serious country. When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. We beat all three in less than four years. We're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war against ... [terrorist groups], and we're losing.

War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

If there is a war to be fought, we don’t consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not to fight.

Usually when a lot of men get together, it's called a war.

Man, it seems, is not able to bear the languid rest on Nature's bosom, and when the trumpet sounds the signal of danger, he hastens to join his comrades, no matter what the cause that calls him to arms. He rushes into the thickest of the fight, and amid the uproar of the battle regains confidence in himself and his powers.

One very difficult decision was deciding to vote against the appropriations bill for the war. I had consistently said that I wanted to make sure our troops got the adequate and training in the war effort, despite the fact that I opposed the war at the point that the president decided to double down and send more troops. I had to vote against funding as a way of bringing it back to the table. That was a difficult decision for me.

The lamp of war is kindled here, not to be extinguished but by torrents of blood.

The men who were well enough to stand had moved across the carriage to cheer the Italians as they went past. A crutch waved out of the window; bandaged forearms made the Red Salute. It was like an allegorical picture of war; the trainload of fresh men gliding proudly up the line, the maimed men sliding slowly down, and all the while the guns on the open trucks making one's heart leap as guns always do, and reviving that pernicious feeling, so difficult to get rid of, that war *is* glorious after all.