The Life of Power: April 2009

"Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other."~Thomas Jefferson

"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."~General Smedley Butler

"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness god has given us in this world..."~Robert E. Lee

"He that is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death."~Thomas Paine

"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth."~George Washington

"History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap."~Ronald Reagan

"War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game."~Thomas Paine

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious."~General Smedley Butler

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."~James Madison

"My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military."~General Smedley Butler (USMC, Ret.)

"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind."~Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."~Thomas Jefferson

"A people free to choose will always choose peace."~Ronald Reagan

"People who are anxious to bring on war don’t know what they are bargaining for; they don’t see all the horrors that must accompany such an event."~General Stonewall Jackson

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."~James Madison

"Criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government."~Sen.Robert Taft(R-OH)

"A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over...is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen."~G. K.Chesterton

"It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils."~General Stonewall Jackson

"Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing."~Ayn Rand

"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones."~Benjamin Franklin

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."~Albert Einstein

"America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all."~John Quincy Adams

"The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war."~James Madison

"We Americans have no commission from God to police the world."~Benjamin Harrison

"War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures."~Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)

"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man."~Napoleon Hill

"Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms."~Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)

"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood...War is hell."~General William Tecumseh Sherman

"The hardest thing for me in Vietnam wasn't seeing the wounded and dead. It was watching the big transport jets come in, bringing loads of fresh new boys for the war."~Johnny Cash

"War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it."~Martin Luther

"The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people."~Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)

"War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell."~General William Tecumseh Shermn

"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."~George Orwell

"All wars are fought for money."~Socrates

"Force always attracts men of low morality."~Albert Einstein

"When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace."~St. Augustine

"The State thrives on war – unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed – expands on it, glories in it."~Murray Rothbard

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public."~Theodore Roosevelt