War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stewart Mill (1806 - 1873)
Do you not consider poverty, disease, hunger, injustice, etc worthy causes for war in order to erradicate same?
ReplyDeleteThen again, if it is quotes you like, this one comes to mind;
“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Or so said Hermann Goering, a Nazi top officer who was later denounced by his boss and branded, through a commissioned phychiatric report, as being weak of character, a hysteric and unstable personality, sentimental yet callous, violent when afraid and a person whose bravado hid a basic lack of moral courage. "Like many men capable of great acts of physical courage which verge quite often on desperation, he lacked the finer kind of courage in the conduct of his life which was needed when serious difficulties overcame him."
Goering was then exiled and later sentenced to death by hanging, but he killed himself by cynide the night his hanging was supposed to take place.
His boss, Hitler, would have loved your quote ... very much!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring