Wednesday, April 11, 2007

My "Favorite" Quote On War (if there can be one)

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill

This quote was featured at Austin's graduation from Basic Training and became my favorite quote about war. Want to guess when it was written? You'll be surprised.

7 comments:

Kila said...

Without looking it up first, I'll guess during WWII.

I'm more than worried by how Americans are becoming defeatists, ready to throw in the towel. (As if that'll make all the problems go away!)

Debbie said...

May I guess mid to late 1800's?

Write Before Sleep said...

While I've never been able to get an exact date, based on his life time (1806 - 1873) mid-1800s is a good guess, Mel's mom!

Some day I will get the exact year at least.

liberal army wife said...

amx3 - yes this extension applies to ALL Army troops either presently in country or going in the future. I wish I was numb. I'm so angry right now, I could spit nails. and they did it again! The media had the news before the troops!!!!! DAMMIT can't they do ANYTHING right?

LAW

Debbie said...

Just so you know- I totally cheated- I looked it up...

Write Before Sleep said...

Mel's Mom --- I'm shocked!

Not really. When I first saw the quote I had no idea when it was written and when I saw the likely time period I was surprised.

If we look at significant times in the entire world, they are defined by WARS. Ante-bellum (pre-Civil War), Baby Boomers (post WWII); our own country was established by fighting a war. I hate war.

Sarge Charlie said...

Just so you know, I am going to use it in a shout out and send you some of my readers, I love it.