Category: Verbatim

We must not depend on any sort of Divine Providence to put a stop to war. Providence says, Kill one another, my children. Kill one another to your hearts’ content. There are plenty more where you came from. Consequently, if we want war to stop we must all become conscientious objectors.

— George Bernard Shaw

Political language — and with variations this is true of all politcal parties, from conservatives to anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

— George Orwell

The enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index, prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially among the hereditary leisure class.

— Thorsten Veblen (1887-1929), American social scientist

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

— Oscar Wilde

The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform.

— Alfred Kinsey

The first 20 stories written about a public figure set the tone for the next 2,000, and it is almost impossible to reverse it.

— Charles W. Colson, White House aide

The most tyrannical governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.

— Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch philosopher

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet and fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

— Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961), American writer, Nobel Prize 1954

National hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist, philosopher

The right of a minority is to draw its salaries, and its function is to make a quorum.

— Thomas Brackett Reed (1839-1902), Speaker of the House of Representatives