Kirby Page: Trending quotes (page 9)

“War is method. War is atrocity. War is wholesale falsehood. War is the practice of military necessity. War is the utter denial of the spirit and example of Jesus.”

“Imperialist war arises not merely because of bitter economic competition among industrialists and financiers of various nations, but because of the dominance of government by powerful vested interests who use the armed forces of the nation to increase their private gains in other lands. To the degree that the power of these groups is broken by socialization and equalization of economic privilege, the likelihood of war is thereby reduced.”

“The bareness and cruelty and misery of this generation now cry aloud for God-saturated and Jesus-challenged deliverers.”

“The consolidation of financial and industrial power in the hands of a small section of the people leads inevitably to more and more intense congestion of money.”

“Modern warfare is ghastly beyond exaggeration and civil war among industrial populations is the most diabolical form of conflict.”

“Before a just society can be established the property system and the penal code of such a social order must be radically transformed.”

“Our difficulty comes, of course, in deciding where ethical coercion ends and unethical violence begins. The only person who is able to escape from this dilemma is the complete anarchist who repudiates every form of restraint and compassion—and such a man has no solution to offer for the imminently menacing problems of the hour. All other persons are obliged to draw the line somewhere, and orderly progress depends upon intellectual keenness and ethical sensitiveness with which the situation is confronted.”

“The truth of the matter is that, even under individualism, only a small fraction of the population is impelled chiefly by the profit motive, and that vast multitudes of men and women are motivated by other incentives than by the desire for profit. …nevertheless, they are strategic individuals whose activities are essential to efficiency in industry.”

“Mussolini and Hitler and Stalin all take it for granted that the faithful will if necessary lay down life itself in the holy cause.”

“Is compulsion necessarily a violation of the law of love? To offer an affirmative answer is to deny the validity of all existing governments. This is the position of Tolstoy and other absolute non-resistants. Few readers of these words, however, will agree that anarchy alone is consistent with love.”

“Cooperation and mutuality produce goodwill and harmony, whereas competition for special privilege divides men into warring camps.”

“One of the most dangerous phases of self-interest in industry has been the part it has played in bringing about wars between nations.”

“Perhaps the greatest delicacy on the table of many primitive men consisted of certain choice morsels from the roasted body of a slain enemy.”

“Non-conformity has always been dangerous, and men were subjected to all manner of persecution”

“Verily, civilized patriots strain gnats and swallow camels!”

“The loyal follower of Jesus will stand in opposition to war as a means of settling differences between nations. He will be unalterably opposed to the ruthless competition and merciless rivalry of our present autocratic and capitalistic system. He will condemn vigorously the enslaving of the poor by the rich, the oppression of the weak by the strong. He will seek to replace the present Kingdom of Competition and Profits by the ideal Kingdom of Cooperation and Service.”

“Non-warlike revolutionists fall into a tragic blunder when they enter into a united front with communists or near-communists.”

“For a powerful nation like the United States to continue its insistence upon absolute sovereignty and to refuse to cooperate in creating effective international agencies of justice, is to obstruct the pathway that leads away from international chaos and destruction.”

“Every person is a child of God and a brother of man. Therefore personality is the supreme value, and should be regarded as an end and not merely as a means to an end.”