Jean Giraudoux War Quotations

The brave men die in war. It takes great luck or judgment not to be killed. Once‚ at least‚ the head has to bow and the knee has to bend to danger. The soldiers who march back under the triumphal arches are death's deserters.

As soon as war is declared it will be impossible to hold the poets back. Rhyme is still the most effective drum.

Everyone, when there's war in the air, learns to live in a new element: falsehood.

If you sing a song of peace with enough gestures and grimaces, it becomes a war song.

In war-time a man is called a hero. It doesn't make him any braver, and he runs for his life. But at least it's a hero who is running away.

Born enemies don't fight. Nations you would say were designed to go to war against each other by their skins, their language, their smell; always jealous of each other, always hating each other; they're not the ones who fight. You will find the real antagonists in nations fate has groomed and made ready for the same war.

During war we imprison the rights of man.

There's a kind of permission for war which can be given only by the world's mood and atmosphere, the feel of its pulse. It would be madness to undertake a war without that permission.