Quotes About Conflict

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire...

Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded. Thy are barred from the latter functions by a great principle in free government, analogous to that which separates the sword from the purse, or the power of executing from the power of enacting laws.

on Democracies: "there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than War, War is better than tribute.

You do know that the West Bank means the West Bank of the Jordan River, don't you?

In fact, respect, compassion, and sensitivity are undervalued gifts for dealing with conflict and disagreement in general, gifts that can be shared with the wider culture.

To paraphrase Merton in his book The Sign of Jonas, all of my training pointed one way, and all of my ideals the other.

No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.

You're the most infuriating woman I've ever met! Women normally fall all over themselves to see me smile at them. You're talking to me like I'm common trash." "Oh, I think you're very uncommon trash. Now why don't you just run along and find one of those women who like you so much? I need to figure out how to save Vendevorex.

Excellent. It looks like we've got it all worked out for me to join a group of men sworn to kill me so we can face off with a dragon that melts stone with his breath." She grinned. "And Stagger used to complain that I never planned ahead.

He was like everybody in war. He believed God was on his side. Everybody got God on their side in a war. Problem is, God ain't tellin' nobody who He's for.

He'd shot and beaten people because he couldn't talk to them.Violence was the only language nobody could understand. There were no translators.

To set a forest on fire, you light a match. To set a character on fire, you put him in conflict.

Before you go ahead with a flashback, ask yourself if you can make the same impact on your reader through conflict in the now of the novel. If the answer is no, then the flashback is necessary, but remember that within the flashback all the same principles of good dramatic storytelling which apply in the now of your story—fully rounded characters, a rising conflict, inner conflicts, and so on—continue to apply.

For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.

For a bounded, metaphysically veiled, and destined society, enemies are necessary, conflict inevitable, and war likely.

A finite game must always be won with a terminal move, a final act within the boundaries of the game that establishes the winner beyond any possibility of challenge. A terminal move results, in other words, in the death of the opposing player as player. The winner kills the opponent. The loser is dead in the sense of being incapable of further play.

A boundary is a phenomenon of opposition. It is the meeting place of hostile forces. Where nothing opposes there can be no boundary. One cannot move beyond a boundary without being resisted.

Just as Alexander wept upon learning he had no more enemies to conquer, finite players come to rue their victories unless they see them quickly challenged by new danger. A war fought to end all wars, in the strategy of finite play, only breeds universal warfare.

The exercise of power always presupposes resistance.

The exercise of power always presupposes resistance. Power is never evident until two or more elements are in opposition.

Patriots can flourish only where boundaries are well-defined, hostile, and dangerous.