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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.

— William James The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)

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More quotes by William James

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Pacifists ought to enter more deeply into the aesthetical and ethical point of view of their opponents.

The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

The Principles of Psychology (1890)

The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.

Collected Essays and Reviews (1920)

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being.

The Letters of William James (1920)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William James (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.