Wars are caused by undefended wealth.

Wars are caused by undefended wealth.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment read more

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, and more memorable than any that had preceded it.

If war should sweep our commerce from the seas, another generation will restore it. If war exhausts our treasury, future read more

If war should sweep our commerce from the seas, another generation will restore it. If war exhausts our treasury, future industry will replenish it. If war desiccate and lay waste our fields, under new cultivation they will grow green again and ripen to future harvest. If the walls of yonder Capitol should fall and its decorations be covered by the dust of battle, all these can be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of a demolished government; who shall dwell in the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty; who shall frame together the skillful architecture which unites sovereignty with state's rights, individual security with prosperity?

Instead of breaking that bridge, we should, if possible, provide
another, that he may retire the sooner out of read more

Instead of breaking that bridge, we should, if possible, provide
another, that he may retire the sooner out of Europe.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic read more

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer read more

To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.

Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.

Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.

War challenges virtually every other institution of society--the justice and equity of its economy, the adequacy of its political systems, read more

War challenges virtually every other institution of society--the justice and equity of its economy, the adequacy of its political systems, the energy of its productive plant, the bases, wisdom and purposes of its foreign policy.