| Man is the only animal that deals in that
atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren
about him and goes forth in cold blood...to exterminate his kind. He is
the only animal that for sordid wages will march out...and help to slaughter
strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he
has no quarrel... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood
off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man"--with
his mouth. - What Is Man? |
 AI image created by Barbara Schmidt |
| If the bubble reputation can be obtained
only at the cannon's mouth, I am willing to go there for it, provided the
cannon is empty. If it is loaded my immortal and inflexible purpose is to
get over the fence and go home. My invariable practice in war has been to
bring out of every fight two-thirds more men than when I went in. This seems
to me Napoleonic in its grandeur. - "Mark Twain as a Presidential Candidate," New York Evening Post, 9 June 1879 All war must be just the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity; strangers whom, in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble, and who would help you if you needed it. - "The Private History of the Campaign That Failed" I can see that marching company yet, and I can almost feel again that consuming desire that I had to join it. But they had no use for boys of twelve or thirteen, and before I had a chance in another war, the desire to kill people to whom I had not been introduced had passed away. - Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010) |
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| To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep
on saying, " Our country, right or wrong," and urge on the little
war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation. - "Glances at History," 1906 An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war. - "Glances at History," 1906 Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. - "Chronicle of Young Satan" |
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