Quotes About Conflict

Decades of conflict, including a long civil war in Mutal, led to the formation of two large blocs, one dominated by Mutal, the other by Kaan. As cities within the blocs traded attacks with each other, half a dozen cities ended up in ruins, including Naranjo, Oxwitza', Mutal, and Kaan.

In this he was echoing conclusions drawn centuries before by Pedro Pizarro. Had Wayna Qhapaq "been alive when we Spaniards entered this land," the conquistador remarked, "it would have been impossible for us to win it.… And likewise, had the land not been divided by the [smallpox-induced civil] wars, we would not have been able to enter or win the land.

De Soto died of fever with his expedition in ruins. Along the way, though, he managed to rape, torture, enslave, and kill countless Indians. But the worst thing he did, some researchers say, was entirely without malice—he brought pigs.

Most of all, the clash between Vogtians and Borlaugians is heated because it is less about facts than about values. Although the two men rarely acknowledged it, their arguments were founded on implicit moral and spiritual visions: concepts of the world and humankind's place in it.

Writing in 1934, Alfred L. Kroeber, one of the founders of American anthropology, theorized that the Indians in eastern North America could not develop—could have no history—because their lives consisted of "warfare that was insane, unending, continuously attritional

Because he controlled food negotiations with Powhatan, the colony's men of consequence swallowed their displeasure.

For obvious reasons its farmers did not relish the prospect of buffalo herds trampling through their fields. Nor did they want deer, moose, or passenger pigeons eating the maize. They hunted them until they were scarce around their homes. At the same time, they tried to encourage these species to grow in number farther away, where they would be useful. "The net result was to keep that kind of animal at arm's length

European and U.S. environmentalists insist that the forest should never be cut down or used—it should remain, as far as possible, a land without people. In an ecological version of therapeutic nihilism, they want to leave the river basin to its own devices. Brazilians I have encountered are usually less than enthusiastic about this proposal.

Some early colonists gave the same answer. The leaders of Jamestown tried to persuade Indians to transform themselves into Europeans. Embarrassingly, almost all of the traffic was the other way—scores of English joined the locals despite promises of dire punishment. The same thing happened in New England. Puritan leaders were horrified when some members of a rival English settlement began living with the Massachusett Indians.

Young man, if I could as easily wipe from my conscience the stain of killing you, as I can this spittle from my face, you should not live another minute.

And thus ended the third Crusade, less destructive of human life than the two first, but quite as useless.

Wherever the European had trod, death seemed to pursue the aboriginal.

It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature.

What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.

I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.

como se producen más individuos que los que pueden sobrevivir, tiene que haber en cada caso una lucha por la existencia, ya de un individuo con otro de su misma especie o con individuos de especies distintas, ya con las condiciones físicas de vida.

It's a good thing war is so terrible or else we'd get to liking it too much.

Inman's only thought looking on the enemy was, Go home.

The flame of urgent coupling burned hottest against the woman, no matter how romantic and high and heartsick the anguish of the man might be pitched in retrospect.

Both parties make a public show of how bitter their conflicts are, and how dangerous it would be for the other party to achieve power, while both prostitute themselves to the financial sector, powerful industries, and the wealthy.

Arms and the man

the nausea due to misunderstanding a language, the fear due to unfamiliarity with a style, the conflict of generations, are all mild examples of sign shock.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and half-a-dozen gentlemen aboard one ship are as bad as two kings of Brentford.

who, like other weak men, grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make peace