What a country calls its vital… interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war. Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat. – Simone Weil, Ecrits historiques et politiques, 1960

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election. – Otto von Bismarck

Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920s and 1930s when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brothers keeper. – Hubert H. Humphrey