Henry David Thoreau

To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any other exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?

Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world.

People didn’t want war. We were forced in it. How fast we finish it depends on how free a hand our generals and admirals have. The less interference they get from the politicians the quicker they’ll end it.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.

War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.

Wars are necessary to teach us lessons we seem unable to learn any other way.

I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

War talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in the moon is likely to be dull.

No one ever wins a war.

In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill.

That’s what an army is – a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.

I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed.

There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.