Kirby Page - War Quotes

56 Sourced Quotes

View all Kirby Page Quotes
Atrocity supplants compassion and mercy. Mutual forbearance and mutual forgiveness are suppressed as treason. The overcoming of evil by doing good is looked upon as impracticable and dangerous to national welfare. The war method has no place in it for the spirit and practices of Jesus.

Kirby Page
It is no longer possible to place a halo around war and speak of it in idealistic terms.

Kirby Page
Even after proper discount is made for false propaganda, the evidence is indisputable that every invading army perpetrates atrocity, so much so that war may correctly be defined as atrocity. Reference to various standard dictionaries reveals the following definition of atrocity: "A deed of violence or savagery; great cruelty or reckless wickedness; extreme cruelty; enormous wickedness."

Kirby Page
The loyal follower of Jesus will stand in opposition to war as a means of settling differences between nations. He will be unalterably opposed to the ruthless competition and merciless rivalry of our present autocratic and capitalistic system. He will condemn vigorously the enslaving of the poor by the rich, the oppression of the weak by the strong. He will seek to replace the present Kingdom of Competition and Profits by the ideal Kingdom of Cooperation and Service.

Kirby Page
If the moral approval of religious people were withdrawn from the system of individualism, it could be quickly transformed. Just as the churches belatedly called slavery a sin, and later religious institutions pronounced war to be the world's colossal sin, religious institutions should now declare that sanctioning and supporting the profit system is sin.

Kirby Page
Restless under this tyranny, the Jewish people were eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah, who should overthrow the conqueror and bring about freedom.... It was into this atmosphere that Jesus came. His country was in disgraceful bondage to imperialistic and militaristic Rome. His countrymen were waiting with intense eagerness for the Messiah, who should lead them to victory and freedom and glory.... Yes, Jesus faced the question of war.... One of the great temptations of his life came at this point.... He loathes and detests the odious oppression which is wearing out the life of his people.

Kirby Page
If Christians give their consent and support to preparedness to wage war with atomic bombs and other weapons of annihilation and devastation, they will thereby repudiate the way of Jesus.

Kirby Page
We can take Jesus seriously and strive earnestly to follow him, or we can prepare to wage atomic war, but it is utterly impossible to do both at the same time.

Kirby Page
The war method includes falsehood as an integral part. Truth is indeed a casualty of war.

Kirby Page
Imperialist war arises not merely because of bitter economic competition among industrialists and financiers of various nations, but because of the dominance of government by powerful vested interests who use the armed forces of the nation to increase their private gains in other lands. To the degree that the power of these groups is broken by socialization and equalization of economic privilege, the likelihood of war is thereby reduced.

Kirby Page
War is atrocity; war is a method of savage violence.

Kirby Page
The foreign policy of the United States in the decades ahead may prove to be the deciding factor in determining whether or not militant nationalism, aggressive imperialism and international anarchy, are to lead to further wars, or whether an era of international peace shall be ushered in by outlawing war and by creating effective social machinery through which a new and higher conception of nationalism may find expression.

Kirby Page
War is waged by governmental action and war can be prevented only by actions of governments. This means that individuals must act as citizens and influence the behavior of governments if they are to be effective in preventing war.

Kirby Page
If an international treaty outlawing war is negotiated, there is every reason to believe that the United States would join the League of Nations without further delay.

Kirby Page
Countless numbers of people have justified war on grounds of the end in view and the spirit of the combatants.

Kirby Page
The police actually do serve as a constructive and redemptive force in society, in spite of many miscarriages, in spite of many miscarriages of justice and occasional misuse of power. Modern war... in actual operation is not constructive but so enormously destructive as to menace the existence of our civilization. It neither protects the innocent nor redeems the guilty.

Kirby Page
Hatred is an essential part of war. During the conflict it is regarded as treason to "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." In war, the enemy are regarded as targets, not as sons of God.

Kirby Page
During wartime, no belligerent nation will admit any limitation of its supreme sovereignty. Each nation is a law unto itself Treaties and international laws are sometimes observed in war, if their observance does not stand in the way of winning. But tragic experience indicates that the most sacred obligations are utterly disregarded when their observance means losing the war.

Kirby Page
Modern warfare is ghastly beyond exaggeration and civil war among industrial populations is the most diabolical form of conflict.

Kirby Page
War is planned devastation and organized slaughter.... War is continued devastation and slaughter until the enemy yields or until a nation's own defeat is acknowledged.

Kirby Page
War is method. War is atrocity. War is wholesale falsehood. War is the practice of military necessity. War is the utter denial of the spirit and example of Jesus.

Kirby Page
If the principle is accepted that killing in defense of property and life is valid and mandatory, armed preparedness for war follows automatically.

Kirby Page
Can the use of physical force ever be reconciled with the family spirit?... On one occasion he appears to have resorted to force himself... It sheds no light upon the question as to whether the taking of life, capital punishment, or war are ever justifiable. The criterion by which Jesus judges every method is this; Can it be used appropriately in the home?

Kirby Page
No more thrilling challenge confronts the people of this generation than that inherent in the crusade to abolish war and to create adequate international organization.

Kirby Page
There is a far higher degree of probability of success through non-warlike means than through the Communist strategy of civil war.

Kirby Page
One of the most dangerous phases of self-interest in industry has been the part it has played in bringing about wars between nations.

Kirby Page