It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas Jefferson

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
Abraham Lincoln

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.
Winston Churchill

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.
Kahlil Gibran

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
Mohandas Gandhi

We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.
Norman Vincent Peale

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
George Washington

The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
William Shakespeare

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
Aristotle

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
Henry David Thoreau

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.
Lao Tzu

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
Napoleon Bonaparte

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
Napoleon Bonaparte

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
Mae West

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Dale Carnegie

This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Colin Powell

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.
Pope John Paul II

Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
William Blake