Too late in moving here, too late in arriving there, too late in coming to this decision, too late in starting with enterprises, too late in preparing. In this war the footsteps of the allied forces have been dogged by the mocking specter of Too Late! and unless we quicken our movements, damnation will fall on the sacred cause for which so much gallant blood has flowed.
The last £100,000,000 will win.
Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,
With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies?
Ultima ratio regum.
Last argument of kings. [Cannon.]
Louis XIV ordered this engraved on cannon.
Removed by the National Assembly, Aug.
19, 1790. Found on cannon in Mantua.
(1613) On Prussian guns of today. Motto
for pieces of ordnance in use as early as
1613. Buchmann—Geflugelte Worte. Ultima razon de reges. (War.) The ultimate
reason of kings. Calderon. Don't forget
your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings. Frederick the Great to his brother Henry.
April 21, 1759.
Ez fer war, I call it murder,—
Ther you hev it plain and flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that.
It don't seem hardly right, John,
When both my hands was full,
To stump me to a fight, John,
Your cousin, too, John Bull!
Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess
We know it now," sez he,
"The lion's paw is all the law,
According to J. B.,
That's fit for you an' me."
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
Not but wut abstract war is horrid,
I sign to thet with all my heart,—
But civilysation doos git forrid
Sometimes, upon a powder-cart.
Lowelt,—Biglow Papers. No. 7.
The Campbells are comin'.
Pourquoi cette trombe enflammee
Qui vient foudroyer l'univers?
Get embrasement de l'enfer?
Ce tourbillonnement d'armdes
Par mille milliers de milliers?
—C'est pour un chiffon de papier.
For what this whirlwind all aflame?
This thunderstroke of hellish ire,
Setting the universe afire?
While millions upon millions came
Into a very storm of war?
For a scrap of paper.
Pere Hyacinthe Loyson—Pour un Chiffon
de Papier. Trans, by Edward Brabrooe.
In Notes and Queries, Jan. 6, 1917. P. 5.
| seealso = (See also Bethmann-Hollweg)
Alta sedent civilis vulnera dextrae.
The wounds of civil war are deeply felt.
Lucan—Pharsalia. I. 32.
Omnibus hostes
Reddite nos populis—civile avertite bellum.
Make us enemies of every people on earth,
but prevent a civil war.
Lucan—Pharsalia. II. 52.
Non tarn portas intrare patentes
Quam fregisse juvat; nee tarn patiente colono
Arva premi, quam si ferro populetur et igni;
Concessa pudet ire via.
The conqueror is not so much pleased by
entering into open gates, as by forcing his
way. He desires not the fields to be cultivated by the patient husbandman; he would
have them laid waste by fire and sword. It
would be his shame to go by a way already
opened.
Lucan—Pharsalia. II. 443.
'Aig [F.-M. Sir Douglas Haig] 'e don't say
much; 'e don't, so to say, say nothin'; but what
'e don't say don't mean nothin', not 'arf. But
when 'e do say something—my Gawd!
Here I stand. I can do no other. God help
me. Amen.
Martin Luther. End of his speech at the
Diet of Worms. April 18, 1521. Inscribed
on his monument at Worms.
| seealso = (See also Horace, Wilson)
| topic = War
| page = 850
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 16
| text = <poem>I beg that the small steamers ... be
spared if possible, or else sunk without a trace
being left. (Spurlos versenkt.)
Count Karl Von Luxburg, Charge 1 d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres. Telegram to the
Berlin Foreign Office, May 19, 1917. Alsc
same July 9, 1917, referring to Argentine
ships. Cablegrams disclosed by Sec. Lansing as sent from the German Legation h
Buenos Ayres by way of the Swedish Legition to Berlin.
If neutrals were destroyed so that thty
disappeared without leaving any trace, terror would soon keep seamen and travelers
away from the danger zones.
Prop. Oswald Flamm in the Berlin Woae.
Cited in N. Y. Times, May 15, 1917.
