WAR
Lay down the axe; fling by the spade;
Leave in its track the toiling plough;
The rifle and the bayonet-blade
For arms like yours were fitter now;
And let the hands that ply the pen
Quit the light task, and learn to wield
The horseman's crooked brand, and rein
The charger on the battle-field.
None of our soldiers would understand not being asked to do whatever is necessary to reestablish a situation which is humiliating to us and unacceptable to our country's honor.—We are going to counter-attack.
The American flag has been forced to retire. This is intolerable.
You are there, stay there.
If it were possible for members of different nationalities, with different language and customs, and an intellectual life of a different kind, to live side by side in one and the same state, without succumbing to the temptation of each trying to force his own nationality on the other, things would look a good deal more peaceful. But it is a law of life and development in history that where two national civilizations meet they fight for ascendancy. In the struggle between nationalities, one nation is the hammer and the other the anvil: one is the victor and the other the vanquished.
Justa bella quibus necessaria.
Wars are just to those to whom they are
necessary.
Quoted by Burke—Reflections on the Revolution in France.
"War," says Machiavel, "ought to be the only
study of a prince"; and by a prince he means
every sort of state, however constituted. "He
ought," says this great political doctor, "to
consider peace only as a breathing-time, which
gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes
ability to execute military plans."
Burke—Vindication of Natural Society. Vol.
I. P. 15.
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled:
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory!
Burns—Bruce to his Men at Bannockburn.
Dieu est d'ordinaire pour les gros escadrons
contre les petits.
God is generally for the big squadrons
against the little ones.
Bussy-Rabuttn—Letter. Oct. 18, 1677. Anticipated by Tacitus. Deus fortioribus adesse.
| seealso = (See also Voltaire)
| topic = War
| page = 843
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>In all the trade of war, no feat
Is nobler than a brave retreat.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto III. L. 607.
For those that run away, and fly,
Take place at least o' th' enemy.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto III. L. 609.
There's but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. II. Canto III. 957.
For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. III. Canto III. L.
243.
For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.
Butler's lines misquoted by Goldsmith in
a publication of Newbery, the publisher,
The Art of Poetry on a New Plan. Vol. II.
P. 147. The first lines appear in Musarum
Delicia. Collection by Sir John Mennis
and Dr. James Smith. (1656) Accredited
by some authorities to Suckling, but not
confirmed by Mennis.
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Archtlochus, Demosthenes, Erasmus, Menander, Satyre, Scarron, TerTULLIAN.)
Oft he that doth abide
Is cause of his own paine,
But he that flieth in good tide
Perhaps may fight again.
A Pleasant Satyre or Poesie. From the
French. (About 1595)
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| topic = War
| page = 843
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = Bloody wars at first began,
The artificial plague of man,
That from his own invention rise,
To scourge his own iniquities.
Butler—Satire. Upon the Weakness and
Misery of Man. L. 105.
O proud was our army that morning
That stood where the pine darkly towers,
When Sherman said—"Boys, you are weary,
This day fair Savannah is ours."
Then sang we a song for our chieftain
That echoed o'er river and lea,
And the stars on our banner shone brighter
When Sherman marched down to the sea.
War, war is still the cry, "War even to the knife! "
