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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity9 quotes
If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight. — Herodotus · 430 BCCarthage must be destroyed. — Cato the Elder · 149 BCMake war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle · 322 BCLaws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCHail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you. — Suetonius · 52No one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose the god must have wanted this to happen. — Herodotus · 430 BCAll 9 quotes →The Renaissance4 quotes
For what can war, but endless war still breed? — John Milton · 1674Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It's sprightly waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible. — William Shakespeare · 1616Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name. — William Shakespeare · 1616Age of Enlightenment2 quotes
Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege. — Voltaire · 1759Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages. — Samuel Johnson · 1758American Revolutionary Period2 quotes
I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. — John Adams · 1780There never was a good War, or a bad Peace. — Benjamin Franklin · 1783Ancient World1 quote
The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting. — Sun Tzu · 490 BC