Not only do the calamities of war and military preparations not correspond to the reasons used to justify them, but the reasons given are for the most part so feeble that they are not even worth discussing and are wholly unknown to those who perish in wars.
The insanity of modern wars is justified by dynastic interests, nationalism, the balance of European powers, and honor. Honor is the strangest justification for war because there is not a single nation that would not defile itself in the name of honor by committing every kind of crime and shameful act. There is not a single one that would not suffer all manner of humiliations in the name of honor. Even if nations do possess honor, then what a strange thing it is to uphold it by means of war, i.e. by means of all the crimes that dishonor a private individual: arson, looting and murder.
— Anatole France
You ask: is war still necessary between civilized nations? I answer: not only is it “still” not necessary, but it was never necessary. Not only did it sometimes disrupt the correct historical development of humankind, it has always done so, disrupting justice and holding back progress.
Even if wars sometimes had positive consequences for the general civilization, they were still greatly outweighed by the negative. We do not see them because only a part of the negative consequences is immediately obvious. The majority of them, including the ones that are most important, are invisible to us. And that is why we cannot permit the word “still.” To permit this word is to allow the defenders of war to assert that our argument is merely a case of chronological consistency and subjective evaluation, and our differences will come down to our deeming war useless and their deeming it useful. If the question were presented this way, they would readily agree with us, saying that war really can become useless and even harmful, but only in the future, not today. Today, however, they deem it necessary to subject the people to the terrible bloodlettings called war, which are pursued only for the satisfaction of personal ambitions of the smallest minority.
For this always was and still is the only cause of war: power, honors and riches for a small minority at the expense of the masses, whose natural credulity and prejudices, evoked and supported by this minority, make wars possible.
— Gaston Moch
It is surprising how a most insignificant disagreement can transform into a holy war. When England and France declared war on Russia in 1855, it was due to such an insignificant event that one has to dig through diplomatic archives in order to figure out the reason for it. And at the same time, 500,000 good men lost their lives and 5 to 6 billions were spent as a result of this strange misunderstanding.
In fact, there were reasons for it, but they were ones which no one would admit. Napoleon III wanted to use an alliance with England and a successful war to strengthen his ill-begotten power; the Russians wanted to seize Constantinople; the English wanted to strengthen the power of their trade and to hinder Russian influence in the East. Whatever guise it takes, it is always the same spirit of conquest and violence.
— Richet
Sometimes one prince quarrels with another for fear the other should quarrel with him. Sometimes a war is entered upon, because the enemy is too strong; and sometimes, because he is too weak. Sometimes our neighbours want the things which we have, or have the things which we want, and we both fight, till they take ours, or give us theirs.
— Jonathan Swift
No other human action shows so clearly the power of influence and deference to tradition over reason as much as war. People, millions of people, pursue an enterprise with enthusiasm and pride which they all acknowledge to be stupid, vile, harmful, dangerous, ruinous, torturous, villainous and good for nothing; they know this and repeat all the arguments against this enterprise—and they still keep doing it.
The reasons used by authorities to justify war and maintain standing armies are always façades that conceal very different motives.
