War is a billionaire’s extortion racket, baptized in the blood of impoverished teenagers.
Smedley Butler (1881–1940) American Marine Corps officer, war hero, anti-war activist
(Spurious)
Widely circulated in social media, this is less of a quote than a paraphrase of various anti-war statements Butler made, including in his book War Is a Racket (1935), itself an expansion of a lecture series by Butler in the early 1930s.
Quotations about:
war is hell
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Much has been said in this country about not wanting to participate in foreign wars and people who have said it, must now face the fact that foreign wars come very close to our own shores. We will always have not only the religious groups, but many groups who feel that war is wrong. I cannot imagine how anyone could feel otherwise with the picture before them today. But when force not only rules in certain countries, but is as menacing to all the world, as it is today, one cannot live in a Utopia which prays for different conditions and ignores those which exist.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1940-05-17), “My Day”
(Source)
HAWKEYE: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
FR. MULCAHEY: How do you figure, Hawkeye?
HAWKEYE: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
FR. MULCAHEY: Sinners, I believe.
HAWKEYE: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Burt Prelutsky (b. 1940) American TV screenwriter, author, columnist, critic
M*A*S*H, 05×20 “The General’s Practitioner” (1977-02-15)
War may not be Hell itself but it definitely does weaken the barriers between us and the dark regions.
