“War is not a courtesy but the most horrible thing in life; and we ought to understand that, and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is now, war is the favourite pastime of the idle and frivolous.”

—  Leo Tolstoy , book War and Peace

Bk. X, ch. 25
War and Peace (1865–1867; 1869)

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Leo Tolstoy 456
Russian writer 1828–1910

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