Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.
Interpretation
This quote suggests a deep socioeconomic divide in how conflict is perceived and conducted, highlighting the struggles of the impoverished versus the actions of the wealthy.
Peter Ustinov's quote illustrates the stark contrast between the motivations and consequences of terrorism and war from the perspectives of different social classes. It implies that those who are disenfranchised may resort to terrorism as a desperate means of fighting back, while those with wealth and power engage in war, often impacting the poorer populations disproportionately. This statement captures the cyclical nature of violence and the inequalities perpetuated by economic hardships and the accumulation of wealth.
In practice
In a discussion about the root causes of conflict, one might quote Ustinov to emphasize the socioeconomic factors at play.
Marriage is like a three-speed gearbox - affection, friendship, love. It is not advisable to crash your gears and go right through to love straightaway. You need to ease your way through. The basis of love is respect, and that needs to be learned from affection and friendship.
I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.
Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
Because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures.
Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.
Government is like an onion. To understand it, you have to peel through many different layers. Most outsiders never get beyond the first or second layer.
The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.
Democracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.
Politics is the art of the possible; creativity is the art of the impossible.
In Kosovo, the U.S. has chosen a course of action that escalates atrocities and violence. It is also a course of action that strikes a blow against the regime of international order, but which offers the weak at least some protection from predatory states.
It would be folly to argue that the people cannot make political mistakes. They can and do make grave mistakes. They know it, they pay the penalty, but compared with the mistakes which have been made by every kind of autocracy they are unimportant.
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