There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.
A. J. P. TaylorRead
Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the nature of war, contrasting practical and idealistic motivations behind conflicts.
A. J. P. Taylor's quote highlights the grim realities of warfare, suggesting that while historical leaders like Bismarck justified their military actions as necessary, the idealists of the twentieth century, in pursuit of 'just' causes, resulted in greater destruction and loss of life. This reflects a cynical view on the motivations behind wars and raises questions about morality and the true cost of conflict.
In practice
During a debate on military interventions, this quote can be used to question the moral justification of war.
There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.
The male clerk with his quill pen and copper-plate handwriting had gone for good. The female short-hand typist took his place. It was a decisive moment in women's emancipation.
In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.
Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.
If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history; and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.
Sometimes the routes leading to feelings of anger are so convoluted and circuitous that it takes enormous skill to discern their original source, or fountainhead. But regardless of the reason for or the source of the anger or the relative ease or complexity in perceiving either the anger or its source - everybody, but everybody, gets angry.
One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
I think a lot of self-importance is a product of fear. And fear, living in sort of an un-self-examined fear-based life, tends to lead to narcissism and self-importance.
When you have become God's in the measure he desires, then he himself will bestow you upon others; unless, to your greater glory, he chooses to keep you all to himself.
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