There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so read more

There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.

Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no read more

Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore read more

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, read more

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.

All quiet along the Potomac they say
Except now and then a stray picket
Is shot as read more

All quiet along the Potomac they say
Except now and then a stray picket
Is shot as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.

The Establishment center... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral read more

The Establishment center... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster - a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation.

I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace is an interlude during war.

I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace is an interlude during war.

The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.

The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers read more

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers and listeners to come away with. What's it like to be that goofy little soldier, scared stiff, with his bayonet aimed at Christ? What's it like to have been a woman in a defense-plant job during World War II? What's it like to be a kid at the front lines? It's all funny and tragic at the same time.