War Never Changes

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About

"War Never Changes" is a memorable quote uttered during the introduction sequences for various games in the Fallout series. While some have attributed the quote to the 18th President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant, no original sources have been found to verify the claim.

Origin

In October 1997, the first Fallout game was released for PC systems, which featured the line "War never changes" in a voice-over narration by actor Ron Perlman heard immediately after the game's opening cinematic.^[1] On September 30th, 1998, the sequel Fallout 2 was released, which used the same line during the opening sequence. Ten years later in October 2008, the quote was featured in the introduction of the game Fallout 3.

Fallout 1: War. War never changes.
The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.
But war never changes.

Fallout 2: War. War never changes.
The end of the world occurred pretty much as we had predicted. Too many humans, not enough space or resources to go around. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones.

Fallout 3: War. War never changes.
Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage.
In the year 2077, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation.
But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world – but war, war never changes.

Spread

On July 3rd, 2011, YouTuber Fafner Normanko uploaded an edited version of the Cupcake Dog video titled "Cupcake Dog – War never changes," depicting the dog as a war veteran with PTSD (shown below).

On March 2nd, 2013, the video game news blog Destructoid^[5] listed the Fallout quote in an article about the "ten most meaningful video game quotes of all time." On July 20th, the webcomic Dorkly^[4] uploaded a Fallout-themed comic titled "War Never Changes," in which the protagonist discusses the meaning of the quote with the game's narrator (shown below).

On November 8th, 2015, Redditor Jonex_ submitted a post asking about the meaning of the "war never changes" line to the /r/fo4^[3] subreddit, to which user Menonow claimed Ulysses S. Grant originally coined the phrase.

"I have never advocated war except as means of peace, so seek peace, but prepare for war. Because war… War never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming."

On November 10th, Fallout 4 was released, which featured a new opening sequence in which the narrator begins a monologue with the phrase "war never changes" (shown below).

On December 7th, StackExchange^[2] member choster submitted a post asking for verification that the quote was originally uttered by Ulysses S. Grant, to which user DavPhD replied that there were no reputable sources of Grant saying the exact line "war never changes." However, DavPhD provided a quotation from the 1914 book The World's Work; Second War Manual; The Conduct of War which contained an article titled "The Days Work of a Soldier" that included the line.

"The great Napoleon won his victories because the Grand Army could outmarch the enemy. It is the same to-day. War never changes. Only weapons are new. Yet it is not always the weapons, but the men who handle them, who win victories."