Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Letter to William Windham (30 December 1794), quoted in R. B. McDowell (ed.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VIII: September 1794–April 1796 (Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 104
1790s
Diary (4 January 1861)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Context: Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation.
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Letter to William Windham (30 December 1794), quoted in R. B. McDowell (ed.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VIII: September 1794–April 1796 (Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 104
1790s
“Worse than war is the very fear of war.”
peior est bello timor ipse belli.
Thyestes, line 572 (Chorus).
Tragedies
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
2000s, 2003, Mission Accomplished (May 2003)
“Wars worse than civil.”
Bella...plus quam civilia.
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus book Pharsalia
Book I, line 1 (tr. Christopher Marlowe).
Pharsalia
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Regarding the Torture of Others (2004)
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman
War (1816)
Context: The influence of war on the community at large, on its prosperity, its morals, and its political institutions, though less striking than on the soldiery, is yet baleful. How often is a community impoverished to sustain a war in which it has no interest?
“Fear cripples faster than any implement of war.”
Dan Brown book Angels & Demons
Source: Angels & Demons
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Mahatma Gandhi. Interview given to Ralph Coniston, ‘before April 25, 1945’, reproduced in Collected Works, vol. 79, p. 423. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2018). Why I killed the Mahatma: Uncovering Godse's defence. New Delhi : Rupa, 2018.
1940s