It Is My Conviction That Killing Under The Cloak

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

No evil is honorable; but death is honorable; therefore death is not evil.

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.