This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Every one may begin a war at his pleasure, but cannot so finish it. A prince, therefore, before engaging in any enterprise, should well measure his strength, and govern himself accordingly.
The perfect condition of slavery... is nothing else but the state of war continued between a lawful conqueror and a captive, for if once compact enter between them, and make an agreement for a limited power on the one side, and obedience on the other, the state of war and slavery ceases as long as the compact endures; for, as has been said, no man can by agreement pass over to another that which hath not in himself - a power over his own life.
Life | Life | Man | Nothing | Obedience | Power | Slavery | War | Wisdom |
For as long as a time as we can see into the future, we shall be living between war and peace, between a war that cannot be fought and a peace that cannot be achieved. The great issues which divide the world cannot be decided by a war that could be won, and they cannot be settled by a treaty that can be negotiated... the power which used to deal with the division and conflicts of the past, namely, organized war, has become an impossible instrument to use.
Future | Past | Peace | Power | Time | War | Wisdom | World |
War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.
Indecision | Object | War | Wisdom |
Lucan, full name Marcus Annaeus Lucanus NULL
The wounds of civil war are deepest.
War is no more inevitable than the plague is inevitable. War is no more a part of human nature than the burning of witches is a human act.
Human nature | Inevitable | Nature | War | Wisdom |
The great question is: can war be outlawed? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.
Civilization | Question | War | Wisdom |
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
He who makes war his profession cannot be otherwise than vicious. War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows.
Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann
One believes in the coming of war if one does not sufficiently abhor it.
Livy, formally Titus Livius, aka Titus Livy NULL
To those to whom war is necessary it is just.
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method for settling international disputes.
H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken
I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind-that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking. I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty.
Evil | Government | Liberty | Mankind | Religion | Thinking | War | Wisdom | Government |
Violence and war never solve problems; they only make them more acute. They create new dilemmas and new paradoxes.