22 quotes
Pacifists ought to enter more deeply into the aesthetical and ethical point of view of their opponents.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
I will now confess my own utopia. I devoutly believe in the reign of peace and in the gradual advent of some sort of socialistic equilibrium.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
The war-party is assuredly right in affirming and reaffirming that the martial virtues, although originally gained by the race through war, are absolute and permanent human goods.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
It would seem that common sense and reason ought to find a way to reach agreement in every conflict of honest interests.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
The military instincts and ideals are as strong as ever, but they are confronted by reflective criticisms which sorely curb their ancient freedom.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
There is nothing to make one indignant in the mere fact that life is hard, that men should toil and suffer pain. The planetary conditions once for all are such, and we can stand it.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
I look forward to a future when acts of war shall be formally outlawed as between civilized peoples.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Inferiority is always with us, and merciless scorn of it is the keynote of the military temper.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
It may end by seeming shameful to all of us that some of us have nothing but campaigning, and others nothing but unmanly ease.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Modern war is so expensive that we feel trade to be a better avenue to plunder; but modern man inherits all the innate pugnacity and all the love of glory of his ancestors.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
In modern eyes, precious though wars may be they must not be waged solely for the sake of the ideal harvest. Only when forced upon one, is a war now thought permissible.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Why should they not blush with indignant shame if the community that owns them is vile in any way whatsoever? Individuals, daily more numerous, now feel this civic passion.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Men are now proud of belonging to a conquering nation, and without a murmur they lay down their persons and their wealth, if by so doing they may fend off subjection.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
The militarily-patriotic and the romantic-minded everywhere, and especially the professional military class, refuse to admit for a moment that war may be a transitory phenomenon in social evolution.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
We inherit the warlike type; and for most of the capacities of heroism that the human race is full of we have to thank this cruel history.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Reflective apologists for war at the present day all take it religiously. It is a sort of sacrament. It's profits are to the vanquished as well as to the victor; and quite apart from any question of profit, it is an absolute good, we are told, for it is human nature at its highest dynamic.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
Without risks or prizes for the darer, history would be insipid indeed; and there is a type of military character which every one feels that the race should never cease to breed, for everyone is sensitive to its superiority.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
We should get toughness without callousness, authority with as little criminal cruelty as possible, and painful work done cheerily because the duty is temporary, and threatens not, as now, to degrade the whole remainder of one's life.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
What the whole community comes to believe in grasps the individual as in a vise. The war-function has grasped us so far; but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.
The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)