Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.
Thomas SowellRead
Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don't run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The outcome of a war cannot be determined until it has fully concluded, unlike timed sports games.
In this quote, Thomas Sowell emphasizes that wars are complex and extend beyond set time limits, contrasting them with sports like football, where results are clear-cut within a regulated timeframe. He reflects on the naivety of previous generations who may have misunderstood the unpredictable and unending nature of conflict, highlighting the need for a realistic perspective on war.
Themes
WarConflictRealismSportsTime
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of war, this quote can help illustrate the complexities involved.
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I know that war is very cruel and that life is harder when you aren't able to live in the place you called home.
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In the account book of the Great War the page recording the Russian losses has been ripped out. The figures are unknown. Five millions, or eight? We ourselves know not. All we know is that, at times, fighting the Russians, we had to remove the piles of enemy bodies from before our trenches, so as to get a clear field of fire against new waves of assault.
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But they (the infantry) had no use for boys of twelve and 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.
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If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
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War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.
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