The use of a mere dozen nuclear weapons ... would be a human catastrophe without parallel. ... Because so few weapons can kill so many people, even far-reaching disarmament proposals would leave us implicated in plans for unprecedented slaughter of innocent people. The sole measure that can free us from this burden is abolition.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the catastrophic potential of nuclear weapons and the necessity for their abolition to prevent mass destruction.
Jonathan Schell's quote highlights the devastating impact that a limited number of nuclear weapons can have on humanity, describing their potential to cause unparalleled human suffering. He argues that proposals for disarmament, while well-intentioned, still leave the world at risk of unimaginable violence. The only true path to eliminate this risk is the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, which would liberate humanity from the fear and moral burden of such destructive capabilities.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a peace rally to highlight the dangers of nuclear warfare.
[A] new generation, innocent of the divisions of the Cold War, this coming-of-age. ... If its members do not feel the urgency to escape the nuclear danger that some of its parents felt, neither has it developed the deep attachment to nuclear arms also often found among their parents, including most of the governing class. ... The call for abolition should therefore be, among other things, a call from an older generation to younger one.
Reason speaks and feeling bites
A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff.
You can't carve up the world. It's not a pie.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
Anesthetized time; nothing moves and everything is at once.
We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.