Did H. G. Wells say "If we don't end war, war will end us"?

Q: Did H. G. Wells say "If we don't end war, war will end us"?

Yes. Genuinely Wells: he wrote the line for his screenplay of the 1936 film Things to Come, where the protagonist John Cabal (Raymond Massey) speaks it in a Christmas-1940 scene on the eve of war. Wells had already adapted the screenplay into a book in 1935. The wording circulating online matches the film exactly — only the source usually cited (his novels, or The New World Order) is wrong.

Who really said it

If we don't end war, war will end us

Written by H. G. Wells 1866–1946 · English novelist & screenwriter of “Things to Come”

Verified In copyright

Genuinely Wells: he wrote the line for his screenplay of the 1936 film Things to Come ↗, where the protagonist John Cabal (Raymond Massey) speaks it in a Christmas-1940 scene on the eve of war. Wells had already adapted the screenplay into a book in 1935. The wording circulating online matches the film exactly — only the source usually cited (his novels, or The New World Order) is wrong.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“If we don't end war, war will end us” H. G. Wells, Things to Come (1936 film; screenplay by Wells, published as a book 1935) — spoken by John Cabal

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of H. G. Wells; London Film Productions (the 1936 film)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of H. G. Wells — English novelist, historian & prophet of science fiction. Theme: "If we don't end war, war will end us". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "If we don't end war, war will end us". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work: Things to Come
Type: Feature film; screenplay by H. G. Wells (released 20 February 1936). Wells adapted it into a book in 1935.
Spoken by: John Cabal (played by Raymond Massey), in the Christmas-1940 opening scene
Adapted from: Wells’s 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come

— War doesn’t stop progress. It stimulates progress.
— But you can overdo a stimulant… If we don’t end war, war will end us.
— Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. Real old-fashioned Christmas this year.

From the Christmas-Day exchange that opens the film, as Everytown argues over whether another war is coming. Cabal, Wells’s mouthpiece, cuts through the optimism with the warning.

Things to Come (1936) — film script transcript

How we verified this

The exact sentence appears in the Things to Come (1936) script ↗, spoken during the opening Christmas scene.
H. G. Wells wrote the screenplay himself, adapting his 1933 novel; the film was released 20 February 1936 and he turned the script into a book in 1935 — per Wikipedia ↗.
It is not in The New World Order (1940), where quote sites often place it: the full text ↗ contains no such sentence.
Publishers have printed the line on covers of The War of the Worlds and War and the Future, though it appears in neither book.

In copyright

The line comes from Wells’s screenplay for Things to Come, released as a film in 1936 and published by Wells as a book in 1935 — both well after 1931, so under US copyright. Wells died in 1946; literary rights rest with his estate, and the film with London Film Productions (Alexander Korda).

Fact-check

The mix-up

The words are really Wells’s — but almost every citation points at the wrong book, and the line is usually stripped of the film scene that gave it meaning.

The War of the Worlds / War and the Future mis-sourced

Reprint publishers have splashed the line across covers of these titles (e.g. a paperback sold as “The War of the Worlds: If we don’t end war, war will end us”), implying it comes from the novel. It does not appear in either work.

The New World Order (1940) unverified page cite

Quote databases sometimes cite “The New World Order, p. 114.” The complete 1940 text ↗ contains no sentence of the kind.

A free-floating aphorism

It travels as a bare maxim on quote sites, detached from its origin as dialogue in a science-fiction film about the coming world war.

The real home of the line is John Cabal’s warning in Wells’s Things to Come (1936) ↗ — genuine Wells, wrong source almost everywhere else.

Context

Why it mattered

Wells wrote Things to Come as a warning dressed as prophecy. Its opening act imagines “Everytown” sliding into a devastating world war beginning at Christmas 1940 — a year before the real war would engulf Britain. Cabal’s line lands in that scene as the sober counter to neighbours insisting another war could never come, or could only spur progress.

The film’s whole argument — that unchecked war would wreck civilisation and that only a rational world order could save it — grew out of Wells’s long campaign for world government, the same conviction behind his 1940 Declaration of the Rights of Man. The one-liner survives; the film that framed it is largely forgotten.

“If we don’t end war, war will end us.”

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Justice Mortality

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Things to Comeen.wikipedia.org

The 1936 film: Wells’s authorship of the screenplay, release date, and the 1935 book adaptation.

Things to Come — film scriptspringfieldspringfield.co.uk

Transcript containing the exact line in its Christmas-scene context.

The New World Order (full text)gutenberg.net.au

Wells’s 1940 book — searchable proof the line is not here, despite common citations.

The Shape of Things to Comeen.wikipedia.org

Wells’s 1933 novel, the source material Wells adapted into the film.

H. G. Wellsen.wikiquote.org

Sourced and disputed quotations attributed to Wells.

Things to Come (1936)imdb.com

Production and cast details, including Raymond Massey as John Cabal.

The author

About H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

1866–1946 · English novelist, historian & prophet of science fiction

Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer often called a father of science fiction, author of The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and The Outline of History. A lifelong campaigner for world government, he wrote the screenplay for the 1936 film Things to Come, adapting his own 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come — the source of this line.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

H. G. Wells, Things to Come, dir. William Cameron Menzies (London Film Productions, 1936); screenplay by Wells, adapted from The Shape of Things to Come (1933) and published by Wells as Things to Come (1935).

MLA (9th ed.)

Things to Come. Directed by William Cameron Menzies, screenplay by H. G. Wells, London Film Productions, 1936.

APA (7th ed.)

Menzies, W. C. (Director). (1936). Things to come [Film]. London Film Productions.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If we don't end war, war will end us’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-we-dont-end-war-war-will-end-us