I saw in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human.
Interpretation
Grotius critiques the moral decay of warfare in the Christian world, highlighting the lack of justifications for conflict.
In this quote, Hugo Grotius laments the state of the Christian world where wars are initiated on trivial grounds, reflecting a profound moral failure. He points out that even the most primitive societies would be ashamed of such indiscriminate violence, which occurs without adherence to either divine or human law, suggesting a deep philosophical reflection on the nature of justice and morality in human conflict.
In practice
In a speech at a peace conference, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for just causes in warfare.
A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason
By undertaking many things, I have accomplished nothing.
Men rush to arms for slight causes, or no cause at all, and once taken up there is no longer any respect for law, divine or human.
'Tis a short sight to limit our faith in laws to those of gravity, of chemistry, of botany, and so forth. Those laws do not stop where our eyes lose them, but push the same geometry and chemistry up into the invisible plane of social and rational life, so that, look where we will, in a boy's game, or in the strifes of races, a perfect reaction, a perpetual judgment keeps watch and ward.
Not a whole lot of us are wrestling somebody for a canned food item in the supermarket or having an ax fight in the jungle clearing. Instead, we sit and think about taxes and the ozone layer.
It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides.
I have no doubt concerning that Supreme Goodness, who is so eager to share His blessings, or of that everlasting love which makes Him more eager to bestow perfection on us than we are to receive it.
I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.
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