Famous Quotes

In our fast moving, modern age, one tends to overlook the wisdom of those who have struggled through life before us. Indeed, many bright young students may even see the musings of history's greatest ghosts as cornerstones of an era that was perhaps less intelligent as their own. I, myself, have been guilty of believing my elders to be of a group called "Those Who Just Don't Know Anything."

In light of the revelation that generations before me may have been a bit keener than I once portrayed them, and due to the fact that I am in my 36th year of life to boot, the following is an attempt to remember that their histories repeated themselves, just as our own will:

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." John F. Kennedy

"War would end if the dead could return." Stanley Baldwin

"There was never a good war or a bad peace." Benjamin Franklin

"War is cruelty and you cannot refine it." Gen. William T. Sherman (1820-1891)

"If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another." Winston Churchill

"I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war." Cicero.

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime." Ernest Hemingway

"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it." George Orwell

"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won." Duke Of Wellington (1759-1852)

"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars -- yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments." Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Then, on the other hand, it occurs to me that the bright youth of today would not benefit from remembering these truths as much as the esteemed leadership of our modern world would. What gives me pause is that our great nation is led by people who are reminded of the great wisdom of history every time they enter the halls of the White House. Yet, we are still at war.

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