“Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was a business; but now, when great fortunes are only made by business, business is war.”
Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 82.
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Christian Nestell Bovee 21
American writer 1820–1904Related quotes
“War is a bloody business, a killing business.”
Source: George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army
“The time has come when we must proceed with the business of carrying the war to the enemy”
As quoted by the Times-Herald [Washington, D.C.] (3 March 1942) p. 1
Context: The time has come when we must proceed with the business of carrying the war to the enemy, not permitting the greater portion of our armed forces and our valuable material to be immobilized within the continental United States.
“The day of fortune is like a harvest day,
We must be busy when the corn is ripe”
Actually from Goethe's Torquato Tasso, Act IV, scene iv, line 63. In the original German:
Ein Tag der Gunst ist wie ein Tag der Ernte:
Man muss geschäftig sein, sobald sie reift.
Misattributed
Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 10 (p. 220).
“War is not just the business of death, it is the antitheses of life.”
“War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight.”
As quoted in Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (1904) by George Francis Robert Henderson http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12233, Ch. 25 : The Soldier and the Man, p. 481
Context: War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. Armies are not called out to dig trenches, to throw up breastworks, to live in camps, but to find the enemy and strike him; to invade his country, and do him all possible damage in the shortest possible time. This will involve great destruction of life and property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be of brief continuance, and so would be an economy of life and property in the end. To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war.
“War is a cruel business and there is brutality in it on all sides”
Letter to Lucy Webb Hayes, whose cousin was a prisoner and died at Andersonville prison (2 July 1864)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Context: You use the phrase “brutal Rebels.” Don’t be cheated in that way. There are enough “brutal Rebels” no doubt, but we have brutal officers and men too. I have had men brutally treated by our own officers on this raid [to Lynchburg, Va. ]. And there are plenty of humane Rebels. I have seen a good deal of it on this trip. War is a cruel business and there is brutality in it on all sides, but it is very idle to get up anxiety on account of any supposed peculiar cruelty on the part of Rebels. Keepers of prisons in Cincinnati, as well as in Danville, are hard-hearted and cruel.