Smedley ButlerOut of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few - the selfsame few who w… ▶371Death
Smedley ButlerMy mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. ✨ War Is A Racket. Sm… ▶373Reading
Smedley ButlerI spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks… ▶354Reading
Smedley ButlerIf only more of today's military personnel would realize that they are being used by the owning elite's as a publicly subsidized capitalist goon squad.376Time
Smedley ButlerWar is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It… ▶366HumanityReading
Smedley ButlerI served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wal… ▶377ReadingTime
Smedley ButlerWar Is A Racket : I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I lef… ▶367ThoughtTime
Smedley ButlerI helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues … ▶379Reading
Smedley ButlerThe trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and t… ▶313DeathReading
Smedley ButlerI selected an enormous Marine Corps emblem to be tattooed across my chest. It required several sittings and hurt me like the devil, but the finished product was worth the pain. I … ▶368Sadness
Smedley Butler...Senate Doc. # 259. The 65th congress(:)...The coal companies made between 100% and 7,856% on their capital stock during the war (to end all wars, WWI). ...The leather people so… ▶293HumanitySadness
Smedley ButlerFor a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. ✨ Smedley Butler, Mark Twain, Bertra… ▶348DeathLifeReading
Smedley ButlerNo one told these American soldiers they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be … ▶272DeathReading
Smedley ButlerWar is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. ✨ Smedley Butler, Mark T… ▶339Reading
Smedley ButlerOne hundred and twenty Marines were detailed to officer a force of twenty-six hundred Haitians.317Life
Smedley ButlerI helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues … ▶307Death
Smedley ButlerThe normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits - ah! that is another matter - twenty, sixty,… ▶241PoliticsReadingTime
Smedley ButlerWar is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. ✨ Smedley Butler, Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell (2015). W… ▶253Reading
Smedley ButlerA few profit - and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but im… ▶222PhilosophyReading
Smedley ButlerI spent thirty-three years in the Marines, most of my time being a hlgh class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capital… ▶256Time
Smedley ButlerWar like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few. The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit.224Humanity
Smedley ButlerThere are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. ✨ War Is A Racket. Smedley Butler's speech in the U.… ▶171Reading
Smedley ButlerWar is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. ✨ War Is A Racket. Smedley Butler's speech in the U.S. (1933); later published … ▶238Reading
Smedley Butler...The war (WWI) cost your Uncle Sam $52 billion. $39 billion was expended in the actual war period. This expenditure yielded $16 billion in profits.173Hope
Smedley ButlerI had a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions. l might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city district… ▶208Death
Smedley ButlerI helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long... Looking back on it, I feel I might have giv… ▶167Reading
Smedley ButlerI helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In Ch… ▶167Death
Smedley ButlerWhy don't those damn oil companies fly their own flags on their personal property-maybe a flag with a gas pump on it. ✨ Smedley D. Butler (2003). War is a Racket: The Antiwa… ▶134Death
Smedley ButlerIt is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country...but the profits...skyrocket.138Love
