Quote of the Day for 2016-09-15

"The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war."

— Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) "Purely Personal Prejudices," Strictly Personal (1953)

Nazi parade, probably during the Nuremberg Rally of 1934, from Triumph of the Will by Leni Reifenstahl (1935)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-10

"The strongest of all warriors are these two—Time and Patience."

— Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) War and Peace, volume 2, chapter 41 (1869) translated by Constance Garnett

The Viet Minh and the OSS Deer team (August 1945) Standing left to right: Unidentified, Lieutenant Rene Defoumeaux, Ho Chi Minh, Major Allison K. Thomas, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Pfc Henry Prunier, Unidentified, Unidentified, and Pfc Paul Hoagland. Kneeling left to right: Lawrence Vogt, Sergeant Aaron Squires, and Unidentified.

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-30

"Sports is to war as pornography is to sex."

— Jonathan Haidt (1963-    ) "The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives," TED Talk (March 2008)

"Well—what the hell are you staring at?," by EMK (circa 1941-45)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-25

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable."

— Howard Zinn (1922-2010) "Terrorism Over Tripoli," Failure to Quit (1993)

Shoes from the La Belle discothèque bombing in West Berlin (April 7, 1986) Photograph by Paul Langrock

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-15

"The sword was given for this, that none need live a slave."

— Lucan (39-65 CE) Pharsalia, book 4, line 579 (61 CE) as translated by J.D. Duff

Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, Fort Lincoln, District of Columbia (circa 1863) Photo by William Morris Smith

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-12

"It is easier to make war than make peace."

— Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) "Speech on Peace" in Verdun during the Paris Peace Conference (July 20, 1919) as quoted in Les Annales Politiques et Littéraires (July 21, 1919)

The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 15 May 1648 by Gerard ter Borch (1648) which was a large part of the Peace of Westphalia

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-07

"That same Man that renneth awaie, Maie again fight, an other daie."

— Demosthenes (384–322 BCE) Quoted by Plutarch in Moralia (cira 100 CE), which was translated into Latin by Erasmus in Apophthegmatum (1539), which in turn was partially translated into English by Nicholas Udall in Apophthegmes (1542)

"The Tale of Sir Robin" title card from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-11

"He who inflicts a vile and unjust harm by using the power and the force with which he is invested, does not conquer; the true victory is to have on one's side Right naked and entire."

— Luís de Camões (1524-1580) Os Lusíadas, canto 10, stanza 58 (1572)

An unknown protester facing down a column of tanks on Chang'an Avenue near the Beijing Hotel, during the Tiananmen Square Protests (June 5, 1989) Photograph by Jeff Widener

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-02

"War is merely the continuation of politics by other means."

— Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) On War, chapter 1, section 24 (1832)

The Second of May 1808 in Madrid by Francisco Goya (1814)

Quote of the Day for 2016-05-30, Memorial Day

"I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung."

— James A. Garfield (1831-1881) Speech at Arlington Cemetery on Decoration Day (May 30, 1868)

Twilight at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (2012)

Quote of the Day for 2016-05-19

"It's with us only that they make battles. It is we who are the material of war."

— Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) Under Fire, chapter 24 (1916)

Gassed by John Singer Sargent (1919)

Quote of the Day for 2016-05-06

"Terrorism … is a war of the poor against the rich. War is terrorism of the rich against the poor."

— Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) Achtung! Vorurteile (2003)

The World Trade Center, the morning of September 12, 2001. Photograph by Jim MacMillan

Quote of the Day for 2016-04-29

"Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants—the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare from becoming a mere lower-class brawl."

— Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) The Carpet People, chapter 16 (1971)

British soldiers marching into Colesberg, South Africa during the Second Boer War (December 31, 1901)

Quote of the Day for 2016-04-13

"There's nothing more pornographic than glorifying war."

— Tom Clancy (1947-2013) Quoted by Jamie Allen in "Tom Clancy, General Chuck Horner Return to Desert Storm" for CNN (May 12, 1999)

The Green Berets movie poster art by Frank McCarthy (1968)

Quote of the Day for 2016-03-18

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."

— Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) "Notes on the Next War," Esquire magazine, September 1935

Benito Mussolini delivering a speech in Rome (1935) His war with Ethiopia started the same year

Quote of the Day for 2016-03-13

"I cannot think the disputes and jealousies of Heaven are tried and settled by the swords of earth."

— James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) The Nemesis of Faith, "Letter II"

The Battle Between the Israelites and Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-13) Illustration from Figures de la Bible, by Gerard Hoet (1728)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-24

"One cannot play chess if one becomes aware of the pieces as living souls and of the fact that the Whites and the Blacks have more in common with each other than with the players. Suddenly one loses all interest in who will be champion."

— Anatol Rapoport (1911-2007) Strategy and Conscience

East German border guards carrying the body of Peter Fechter after he'd been wounded and left to die at the Berlin Wall (August 17, 1962)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-19

"Only the dead are safe; only the dead have seen the end of war."

— George Santayana (1863-1952) "Tipperary," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies

Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-11

"Peace hath her victories / No less renown'd than war."

— John Milton (1608-1674) "To the Lord General Cromwell"

Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, and Anwar Sadat at Camp David watching a Marine Corps parade (Sept. 7, 1978)

Quote of the Day for 2016-01-13

"The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations."

— David D. Friedman (1945-    ) The Machinery of Freedom, chapter 1

American tank destroyed south of Baghdad, where U.S. forces met stiff resistance while fighting their way to the airport. (April 6, 2003) Photo by Carolyn Cole for the Los Angeles Times