“He who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”

— Thomas Paine

The Crisis No. V http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3741/3741-h/3741-h.htm#link2H_4_0009
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

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Thomas Paine 262

English and American political activist 1737–1809

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“Let statesmen bluster, bark and bray,
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Fairies and Fusiliers (1917)
Context: Let statesmen bluster, bark and bray,
And so decide who started
This bloody war, and who's to pay,
But he must be stout-hearted,
Must sit and stake with quiet breath,
Playing at cards with Death.
Don't plume yourself he fights for you;
It is no courage, love, or hate,
But let us do the things we do;
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It is not anger, no, nor fear —
Lucasta he's a Fusilier,
And his pride keeps him here.

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Thomas Boston (1676–1732) Scottish church leader, theologian and philosopher

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 207.
Secondary Sources

“He who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”

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Thomas Paine 262

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