The purpose of all war is peace.
No more wars, no more bloodshed. Peace unto you. Shalom, salaam, forever.
On signing the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Washington, D.C. (March 26, 1979)
I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived. Memorial Day Address (1884)
Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung
. Life to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.
Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.
On Marriage (1530)
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War.
Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread.Memoirs (Confieso Que He Vivido: Memorias) (1974)
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.
King Henry the Fifth (1598-1600), Act: III, Scene: i, Line: 1
Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.
Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society. What man has made, man can change.
Speech at Arlington National Cemetery (Memorial Day, 1945)
(The Civil War) created in this country what had never existed before a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union; it was the rebirth of the Union.
Memorial Day Address (1915]
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