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Quotes About Conflict

It is possible that the question of a conflict between races may come up in the future, as did that between freedom and slavery before. The condition of the colored man within our borders may become a source of anxiety, to say the least. But he was brought to our shores by compulsion, and he now should be considered as having as good a right to remain here as any other class of our citizens.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
I thought how little interest the men before me had in the results of the war, and how little knowledge they had of "what it was all about.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
I do not believe I ever would have the courage to fight a duel. If any man should wrong me to the extent of my being willing to kill him, I would not be willing to give him the choice of weapons with which it should be done, and of the time, place and distance separating us, when I executed him.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
On several occasions during the war he came to the relief of the Union army by means of his SUPERIOR MILITARY GENIUS.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse
~ Ulysses S. Grant
These reconnoissances were made under the supervision of Captain Robert E. Lee, assisted by Lieutenants P. G. T. Beauregard, Isaac I. Stevens, Z. B. Tower, G. W. Smith, George B. McClellan, and J. G. Foster, of the corps of engineers, all officers who attained rank and fame, on one side or the other, in the great conflict for the preservation of the unity of the nation.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United Status will have to be attributed to slavery.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
But the Nation had already become restless and discouraged at the prolongation of the war, and many believed that it would never terminate except by compromise.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
SIR:—Yours of this date, proposing armistice and appointment of Commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your ob't se'v't, U. S. GRANT, Brig. Gen. To this I received the following reply: HEADQUARTERS, DOVER, TENNESSEE, February 16, 1862.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
In any case, the example set by the Confederates in burning the village of Chambersburg, Pa., a town which was not garrisoned, would seem to make a defence of the act of firing the seat of government of the State most responsible for the conflict then raging, not imperative.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
No doubt a majority of the duels fought have been for want of moral courage on the part of those engaged to decline.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
For my own part, I think that Johnston's tactics were right. Anything that could have prolonged the war a year beyond the time that it did finally close, would probably have exhausted the North to such an extent that they might then have abandoned the contest and agreed to a separation.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
War at all times, whether a civil war between sections of a common country or between nations, ought to be avoided, if possible with honor. But, once entered into, it is too much for human nature to tolerate an enemy within their ranks to give aid and comfort to the armies of the opposing section or nation.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?
~ Umberto Eco
History is a blood-drenched enigma and the world an error.
~ Umberto Eco
I hated my mother who had gone without telling me, I hated my father who had done nothing to stop her, I hated God because he had willed such a thing to happen, and I hated my grandfather because he thought it normal for God to will such things.
~ Umberto Eco
Terrorism is not the enemy of the great systems; on the contrary, it is their natural counterweight, accepted, programmed.
~ Umberto Eco
In a certain sense I could agree with the Futurists that war is the only hygiene of the world, except for one little correction: It would be, if only volunteers were allowed to wage it.
~ Umberto Eco
The fact that for tens of thousands of years humanity has used warfare as a solution for states of disequilibrium has no more demonstrable value than the fact that in the same period humanity learned to resolve states of psychological imbalance by using alcohol or other equally devastating substances.
~ Umberto Eco
The taxi driver is someone who spends all day driving in city traffic (an activity that provokes either heart attack or delirium), in constant conflict with other human drivers. Consequently, he is nervous and hates every anthropomorphic creature.
~ Umberto Eco
hay que valerse de la risa para desarmar la seriedad de los oponentes, y a la risa, en cambio, oponer la seriedad.
~ Umberto Eco
And so it was that the Poet, through an excess of theological refinement, was unable to satisfy his coarse carnal passion.
~ Umberto Eco