Category: Verbatim

But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are spying, treachery and their encouragement, the ruins of a country’s inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery and drunkenness. And in spite of all this, it is the highest class, respected by everyone … and he who kills the most people receives the highest rewards.

— Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1821-1910), Russian writer

Democracy is a word all public men use and none understand.

— George Bernard Shaw

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.

— Epictetus (c. 50-120 A.D.), Greek stoic philosopher

Sorry, I was just jonesing for some Donald Rumsfeld rhetoric. — Buck

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