The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of the ages may be preserved
by quotations.


- Isaac D'Israeli
Showing posts with label War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Aeschylus

"In war, truth is the first casualty."

- Aeschylus, ancient Greek playwright

Sunday, February 13, 2011

W. B. Yeats

"We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare;
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,

Come build in the empty house of the stare."

- 'The Stare's Nest by my Window' from 'Meditations in the Time of Civil War' by W. B. Yeats

In this poem, Yeats is calling for all of Ireland to come together instead of fighting amongst each other, written as it was during the Civil War. In this particular quote, Yeats is speaking of the "fantasies" of freedom and independence that, although noble in intent, have made the heart "brutal" in its attempts to make these visions reality. Yeats is saying that people have become more focused on their opposition in the Civil War than on their love of Ireland itself. Yeats is appealing to the Irish people to "build" rather than break, now that they finally have their independence.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Agatha Christie

"One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one."

- Agatha Christie, author and playwright

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Jeannette Rankin

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

- Jeannette Rankin, first female member of Congress, pacifist

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Ronald Reagan

"People don't start wars, governments do."

- Ronald Reagan, former US president