There is one criticism which cannot be leveled at interparliamentary conferences but which is applicable to a great extent to peace congresses: the meetings waste time. Fredrik Bajer
A 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 impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. Smedley Butler
Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name-calling is left to the foreign ministers. W. Averell Harriman
I have always said that a conference was held for one reason only, to give everybody chance to get sore at everybody else. Sometimes it takes two or three conferences to scare up a war, but generally one will do it. Will Rogers
Before the civil war, Pottibakia was a normal member of the Comity of Nations. She erected tariff walls, broke treaties, persecuted minorities, obstructed at conferences unless she was convinced there was no danger of a satisfactory solution; then she strained every nerve in the cause of peace. E. M. Forster
... conferences with open attendance are very important for the stimulation of young people or other people who are new in the field. ... The field of high-energy physics is, as you know, very strongly in the hands of a clique and it is hard for an outsider to enter. Victor Frederick Weisskopf