Top 100 Quotes About War (2025 Update)

1. “What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

2. “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.”

— George S. Patton Jr.

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes, Victory Quotes

3. “Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes, Victory Quotes

4. “Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Adaptability Quotes

5. “So the principles of warfare are: Do not depend on the enemy not coming, but depend on our readiness against him. Do not depend on the enemy not attacking, but depend on our position that cannot be attacked.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Preparation Quotes, Competition Quotes

6. “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Competition Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

7. “In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory, and then lead your army to battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory will no longer be assured.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes

8. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Winning Quotes, Warrior Quotes

9. “It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one’s readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one’s self invincible.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes

10. “All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight and if not: split and re-evaluate.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes

11. “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.”

— Thucydides

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Vision Quotes, History Quotes

12. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Victory Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes, History Quotes

13. “Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

14. “No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.”

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Victory Quotes

15. “Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes, Competition Quotes

16. “If an enemy has alliances, the problem is grave and the enemy’s position strong; if he has no alliances, the problem is minor and the enemy’s position weak.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Military Quotes, Competition Quotes

17. “What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Military Quotes, Victory Quotes

18. “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Courage Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Leadership Quotes

19. “He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Victory Quotes

20. “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”

— Laurence Binyon

Also featured in: Poetry Quotes, Loss Quotes, Sorrow Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes

21. “These are the six ways of courting defeat – neglect to estimate the enemy’s strength; want of authority; defective training; unjustifiable anger; nonobservance of discipline; failure to use picked men...”

— Sun Tzu

22. “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes

23. “Against those skilled in attack, an enemy does not know where to defend; against the experts in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

24. “The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.”

— Ferdinand Foch

Also featured in: Victory Quotes

25. “There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”

— Sun Tzu

26. “Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Martial Arts Quotes

27. “O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Martial Arts Quotes, Intelligence Quotes

28. “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Winning Quotes, Military Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Struggle Quotes

29. “All war is based on deception.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes

30. “Unless you know the mountains and the forests, the defiles and impasses, the lay of the marshes and swamps, you cannot maneuver with an armed force. Unless you use local guides, you cannot get the advantages of the land.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes

31. “If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth.”

— Julian Assange

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Truth Quotes

32. “Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

33. “If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.”

— Sun Tzu

34. “Thus, though I have heard of successful military operations that were clumsy but swift, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.”

— Sun Tzu

35. “Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.”

— Sun Tzu

36. “If you want to learn the craft of war, ponder over this book. The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Martial Arts Quotes

37. “Always advance. Never dig in.”

— George S. Patton Jr.

38. “War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.”

— Niccolò Machiavelli

39. “Do not engage an enemy more powerful than you. And if it is unavoidable and you do have to engage, then make sure you engage it on your terms, not on your enemy’s terms.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Military Quotes, Fighting Quotes

40. “If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”

— Sun Tzu

41. “There is only one decisive victory: the last.”

— Carl von Clausewitz

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Victory Quotes

42. “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes

43. “Imagine all the people living life in peace...”

— John Lennon

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Optimistic Quotes, Changing the World Quotes, Humanism Quotes

44. “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

— J. Robert Oppenheimer

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Epic Quotes, Quotes About Civilization

45. “The wise warrior avoids the battle.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes

46. “War is never a lasting solution for any problem.”

— Abdul Kalam

Also featured in: Peace Quotes

47. “The best form of defense is attack.”

— Carl von Clausewitz

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Warrior Quotes

48. “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Government Quotes

49. “The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”

— Sun Tzu

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Military Quotes, Fighting Quotes

50. “We make war that we may live in peace.”

— Aristotle