Poems — English

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War

Why some still court war.

A man who experiences no genuine satisfaction in life does not want peace. People court war to escape meaninglessness and boredom, to be relieved of fear and frustration.

1940

The soldier's humanity

Soldiers ! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you ; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel ! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder !

August 2007

From humiliation to peace

Of all that threatens peace in our world, one of the strongest weapons of destruction is humiliation. It causes great pain and a sense of alienation and marginalisation. It crushes people's dignity and leads to despair. Persistent humiliation and injustice drives individuals, militant groups and nations to respond with violence, to kill and mutilate.

1870

How military prowess drives to inhumanity

The proper strategy consists in inflicting as telling blows as possible on the enemy's army, and then causing the inhabitants so much suffering that they must long for peace, and force the government to demand it. The people must be left with nothing but their eyes to weep with over the war.

2009-2010 (presumed given NGO foundation date)

How to powerfully counter war

The most powerful and lasting way to counter war and violence is to build a culture of peace. Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace means living together with, and even celebrating, our differences—be they cultural, religious, ethnic, racial or gender-based. Peace involves transforming society from the inside out, in our own lives and across borders.

31st March 1968 (Speech), 9th April 1968 (US Congressional Record)

We must learn to live as brothers or die as fools

Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality."

31st March 1968 (Speech), 9th April 1968 (US Congressional Record)

It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence

It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. And the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world, may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation, and our earthly habitat would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine."

31st March 1968 (Speech), 9th April 1968 (US Congressional Record)

Remaining Awake Through a triple Revolution

There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution: that is, a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution in weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons of warfare; then there is a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion that is taking place all over the world." (...)

There is not enough money for peace, and for good reason

There is always money to make war, never to live in peace.

Ministry of Peace?

The Ministry of Finance should be called Ministry of Poverty since the Ministry of War isn't called the Ministry of Peace.

Jacques Prévert, French poet, 1900-1977, Extrait d'Histoires, 1972

Sacrifice!

The exemption of women from military service is founded, not on any natural inaptitude that men do not share, but on the fact that communities cannot reproduce themselves without plenty of women. Men are more largely dispensable, and are sacrificed accordingly.

  • Topics : War
  • Humor

War - any progress?

Back when women couldn't vote, we fought wars for them. Now that they can vote, we fight wars for oil. Is that progress?

Bombs - any complaints?

Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers?  Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?

Who is the enemy?

The enemy is stupid : he thinks that we are the enemy, when in fact it's him!

Pierre Desproges, French humorist (1939-1988)

Hatchet

Native Americans have the right spirit, when it is finished, they bury the hatchet.

We, on the other hand, bury the warrior but keep the equipment...

Antoine Blondin on a website about Native Americans.

Jokes are better than wars

Jokes are better than wars. Even the most aggressive jokes are better than the least aggressive wars. Even the longest jokes are better than the shortest wars.

George Mikes, English comedian originally from Hungary, 1912-1987

  • Topics : War
  • Humor

Law leads straight to war

We talk about peace as a result of law, and I find that highly entertaining; as soon as there is one speck of law somewhere on the earth, it's not peace, it's war. Law does not make peace, it makes war.

Charles Péguy, during the 2nd International Conference at The Hague, 1907.

So, when do we attack war ?

If we don’t attack war during times of peace, when will we have the right to attack it ?

Boris Vian, Open letter to Mr. Paul Faber, municipal counselor, 1955

Wars that lose

The war on terror is a rhetorical war just like the war on poverty, and, alas, poverty won.

Alfred de Zayas, professor of international relations, formerly with the UN until retirement.

  • Topics : War
  • Humor

War - who's left ?

War does not decide who is right but who is left...

George Bernard Shaw

  • Topics : War
  • Humor