"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount."
— Omar N. Bradley

"Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."
— Edward W. Said

"We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.
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— Lydia Maria Child

"Als it is hard for America to fight wars in the name of freedom, if those people themselves choose for nonfreedom. Can America and England save India from communism, if they vote communist themselves."
— Oswald Mosley (Ich glaube an Europa: Ein Weg aus der Krise, eine Einführung in das europäische Denken)

"Afghanistan—where empires go to die. "
— Mike Malloy

"Based on the considerations of history, ancient history, and international axioms, the logic of following up a citizen with his shadow for the purpose of the demarcation of political frontiers of any state has been discounted for international conventions. For example the Arabs cannot ask Spain just because they were there some time in the past nor can they ask for any other area outside the frontiers of the Arab homeland"
— Saddam Hussein (Saddam Hussein on Current Events in Iraq)

"When the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys"
— George Orwell (Shooting an Elephant)

"Robinson Crusoe, the first capitalist hero, is a self-made man who accepts objective reality and then fashions it to his needs through the work ethic, common sense, resilience, technology, and, if need be, racism and imperialism."
— Carlos Fuentes (Myself with Others: Selected Essays)

"Large nations do what they wish, while small nations accept what they must."
— Thucydides

"Whoever tries to climb over our fence, we will try to climb over his house. "
— Saddam Hussein (Saddam Hussein on Current Events in Iraq)