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.
I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had recently read a novel called American Psycho,and that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.
Everything happens kind of the way it's supposed to happen, and we just watch it unfold. And you can't control it. Looking back, you can't say, "I should've..." You didn't, and had you, the outcome would have been different.
If Jesus Christ is the head of the church and hence the source and goal of its entire life, true growth is only possible in obedience to Him. Conversely, if the church becomes detached from Jesus Christ and His Word, it cannot grow however active and successful it may seem to be.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.
Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others - the empires and their native overseers. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison.
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