Niccolo Machiavelli Quotes

War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

In times of war, as everyone knows, who has lived through one, or talked to soldiers when they are allowing themselves to remember the truth, and not the sentimentalities with which we all shield ourselves from the horrors of which we are capable ... in times of war we revert, as a species, to the past, and are permitted to be brutal and cruel. It is for this reason, and of course others, that a great many people enjoy war. But this is one of the facts about war that is not often talked about.

But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated.

What’s so civil about war anyway?

That is the explanation of war, an outrage by humanity upon humanity in despite of humanity.

The worst thing about war is that so many people enjoy it.

Religious canons, civil laws, are cruel; then what should war be?

The term 'just war' is an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.

In the struggle of good against evil, it's always the people who get killed.

War, which used to be cruel and magnificent has now become cruel and squalid.

American Indians would, you know, scalp them and desecrate the bodies, you know, tie them to cactuses or bury them in anthills or things like that, and you know, cut up the bodies and stuff. And then the other enemy soldiers would come across and find their comrades laying there, ripped apart, and they would be sickened by it and it would scare them.

It is cruelty in war that buyeth conquest.

I think the suffering, violence and cruelty and Guantanamo and the rest is going to go on and on in Iraq.

If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.

Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.

I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?

Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.

What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.

Yes, war is hell. It is awful. It involves human beings killing other human beings, sometimes innocent civilians. That is why we despise war.

No one hates war like a soldier hates war.

If we know anything about man, it's that he's not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted.

There are scenes here and effects here that would make George S. Patton wince.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.

I think the brutality is important to convey as part of the story, to see how brutal it is to have these kids in battle with one another.