“Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588
Emily Barham
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Context: War isn't a fraud, Charlie, it's very real. At least that's what you always tried to tell me, isn't it? That we shall never get rid of war by pretending it's unreal? It's the virtue of war that's the fraud, not war itself. It's the valor and the self-sacrifice and the goodness of war that needs the exposing. And here you are being brave and self-sacrificing, positively clanking with moral fervor, perpetuating the very things you detest merely to do "the right thing". Honestly, Charlie, your conversion to morality is really quite funny. All this time I've been terrified of becoming Americanized, and you, you silly ass, have turned into a bloody Englishman
“Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588
“Let fraud supply the want of force in war.”
Virgil (-70–-19 BC) Ancient Roman poet
From Book II of Dryden's Aeneid; no exact Latin equivalent exists in Virgil's work, but compare: "Dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?" (Aeneid 2.390).
Misattributed
“Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war.”
John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States
Campaign ad, quoted in Newsweek (23 June 2008), p. 21
2000s, 2008
John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States
Speech to the American Red Cross "Promise of Humanity" conference http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newscenter.ViewPressRelease&Content_id=820 (6 May 1999). <br class="br">1990s
Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
“Right now, the choice isn't between war and peace. It is between war and endless war.”
Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst
Hardball with Chris Matthews, November 16 2004
2000s
“If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 15
“Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse.”
Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair
Source: The Eyre Affair
“The opposite of war isn't peace… It's creation!”
Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright
Rent (1996)