“It is not, of course, because of any selfish motive that he has invaded a helpless country, bombing, burning and gassing both combatants and non-combatants by the thousands.”
From a letter to H. P. Lovecraft (5 December 1935)
Letters
Context: You express amazement at my statement that 'civilized' men try to justify their looting, butchering and plundering by claiming that these things are done in the interests of art, progress and culture. That this simple statement of fact should cause surprize, amazes me in return. People claiming to possess superior civilization have always veneered their rapaciousness by such claims...
Your friend Mussolini is a striking modern-day example. In that speech of his I heard translated he spoke feelingly of the expansion of civilization. From time to time he has announced; 'The sword and civilization go hand in hand!' 'Wherever the Italian flag waves it will be as a symbol of civilization!' 'Africa must be brought into civilization!' It is not, of course, because of any selfish motive that he has invaded a helpless country, bombing, burning and gassing both combatants and non-combatants by the thousands. Oh, no, according to his own assertions it is all in the interests of art, culture and progress, just as the German war-lords were determined to confer the advantages of Teutonic Kultur on a benighted world, by fire and lead and steel. Civilized nations never, never have selfish motives for butchering, raping and looting; only horrid barbarians have those.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "It is not, of course, because of any selfish motive that he has invaded a helpless country, bombing, burning and gassin…" by Robert E. Howard?
Robert E. Howard 145
American author 1906–1936Related quotes
Phyllis Schlafly
(1924–2016) American activist
Women Don't Belong In Ground Combat, Phyllis Schlafly Columns, 2007-03-30, Schlafly, Phyllis, 2005-06-01 http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/june05/05-06-01.html,
Mao Zedong
(1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Source: Directives on the Cultural Revolution (1966-1972)
Variant: Bombing: A method of warfare which delivers high explosives from the air, condemned because of its effects upon women, children, the aged, the sick, and other non-combatants, unless these happen to have resided in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Osaka, etc., though not Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Cf. missile.
Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 3 (p. 30)
“And the combat ceased for want of combatants.”
Et le combat cessa faute de combattants.
Don Rodrigue, act IV, scene iii.
Le Cid (1636)
Jordan Peterson
(1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Maps of Meaning
“The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.”
William O. Douglas
(1898–1980) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Mike Wallace interview (4 November 1958), quoted in The Great Quotations (1966) by George Seldes
Other speeches and writings
“He is the best tactician and combat commander we have.”
Erich von Manstein
(1887–1973) German general
Wolfram von Richthofen
“I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce.”
Margaret Mead
(1901–1978) American anthropologist
As quoted in Quote Unquote (1977) by Lloyd Cory, p. 364
1970s