Quotes About Conflict

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Our mom, Rhea, was not happy about her husband's baby-eating habit, but she didn't know how to stop him. Finally, by the time my little brother Zeus was born, she came up with a plan. (Really, mom? Nothing occured to you until the sixth child?)

The enemy came. He was beaten. I am tired. Goodnight. (Message sent after the battle of Dunen, 658)

But wars—or the threat of war—at least put an end to American chattel slavery, Nazism, Fascism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism. It is hard to think of any democracy—Afghan, American, Athenian, contemporary German, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, ancient Theban—that was not an outcome of armed struggle and war.

Again, wars do not really end until the conditions that started them--a bellicose government, an aggressive leader, a national policy of brinksmanship--are eliminated. Otherwise, there remains a bellum interruptum , much like the so-called Peace of Nicias, when Athens and Sparta agreed to a time-out in 421 B.C., before going at each other with renewed and deadly fury in 415 B.C.

The Price of Neglect A PUBLIC THAT'S illiterate about the conflicts of the past can easily find itself confused during wartime. Without standards of historical comparison, people prove ill-equipped to make informed judgments when the dogs of war are unleashed. Neither U.S. politicians nor most citizens seem to recall the incompetence and terrible decisions that, in December 1777, December 1941, and November 1950, led to massive American casualties and, for a time, public despair.

Given the Western ability to produce deadly weapons, its propensity to create cheap, plentiful goods, and its tradition of seeing war in pragmatic rather than ritual terms as a mechanism to advance political ends, it is no surprise that Mesoamericans, African tribes, and native North Americans all joined European forces to help kill off Aztecs, Zulus, and Lakotas.

Big Stupid leapt up. Little Duane had a gun. Big Stupid punched Little Duane so hard his whole family tree died back to the Middle Ages.

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.

Waterloo is a battle of the first rank won by a captain of the second.

A war between Europeans is a civil war.

Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo! Dismal plain!

Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime.

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

We hear a lot about Palestine now; it does not appeal to us. Anyone who goes there exchanges nationalism and narrowness for nationalism and narrowness.

No victorious revolution without an idea. Certainly! But just as certainly: It is not the idea which makes a revolution, but privation which causes it to break out. And once under way, it deviates from the idea.

There are times when democracy can be a disadvantage. There is an often-recounted and many-versioned story of the mercurial Doug Scott on K2. All versions end with Doug disagreeing with the others, who suggest that the matter be put to the vote. 'You know, youth,' replied Doug, 'democracy is a bit of a failure if you end up having to vote on it.

But darling Sasha, why resort to terrorism, murder? How awful.' He replied, 'What can one do, Mother, when there are no other means available?

In the conflicts between capital and labour, the army has often intervened against labour - never against capital. In court the defense of the poor is nothing short of impossible, because of the cost of any judicial action; in effect, a worker can neither bring a case nor defend one. The overwhelming majority of crimes are directly caused by poverty and come into the category of attacks on property. The overwhelming majority of prison inmates are from the poor.

Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.

Science flies men to the moon, religion flies men into buildings.

Mark Anthony had established ascendance the day before by springing claws like flick knives and hissing like a maddened cobra. Dirk had rolled on his back and ratified the peace treaty before the ink was dry, like a dog of sense.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.

You could not be filled with hate and be beautiful. Like any other girl, I wanted to be beautiful. But I was filled with hate.