Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.

The most expensive peace is far less costly than the cheapest war.

The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace is real and serious

Thinking about the war now and the occupation later is not an acceptable solution.

It’s damn easy to get into a war, but damned harder to extricate yourself once you get in.

It is easier to begin a war than to end one, which is why the decision to start a conflict should not be entrusted to the person who wages it. Post‐war presidents have abandoned this wisdom.

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

It is not every cause of war that should lead to war.

Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper and safe judges of whether a war ought to be commenced, continued or concluded.

We don't declare war any more, we declare national defense.

We’re not going to need as many people to do peacekeeping as we needed to fight the war.

Wars the United States starts do not necessarily end when and how it wants them to.

Lightly armed nations can move toward war just as easily as those which are armed to the teeth, and they will do so if the usual causes of war are not removed.

I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country.

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize 'world peace' even when we get it.

I think when war becomes your life, I think it's very difficult to have the proper perspective to be able to create a fully balanced policy.

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it.

We all say no to war, we are all for justice and peace. But sometimes in order to maintain peace, armed action is necessary. But we hope it won't be the case.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

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

Either a war has to be fought, or it doesn't.

We were so shocked by how fast that war went that President Bush did not have a plan, a peace plan.

The only foreign policy advice I heard from China was when they said to Sudan, 'Don't go back to war.' That's all they said. They didn't push anything else.

War is the ultimate tool of politics.