War and Peace

I believe that the killing of human beings in a war is no better than common murder.

The bombing of civilian centers was initiated by the Germans and adopted by the Japanese. To it, the Allies responded in kind—as it turned out, with greater effectiveness—and they were morally justified in doing so.

The crime of the Germans is truly the most abominable ever to be recorded in the history of the so-called civilized nations. The conduct of the German intellectuals—seen as a group—was no better than that of the mob.

People are living now just as they were before… and it is clear that they have learned nothing from the horrors they have had to deal with. The little intrigues with which they had complicated their lives before are again taking up most of their thoughts. What a strange species we are.

Organized power can be opposed only by organized power. Much as I regret this, there is no other way.

I am the same ardent pacifist I was before. But I believe that the tool of refusing military service can be advocated again in Europe only when the military threat from aggressive dictatorships toward democratic countries has ceased to exist.

In two weeks the sheep-like masses can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that the men are prepared to put on uniform and kill and be killed, for the sake of the worthless aims of a few interested parties. Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering today.

I cannot understand the passive response of the whole civilized world to this modern barbarism. Doesn’t the world see that Hitler is aiming for war?

War is not a parlor game in which the players obediently stick to the rules. Where life and death are at stake, rules and obligations go by the board. Only the absolute repudiation of all war can be of any use here.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.

I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.

My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of people 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.

No person has the right to call himself a Christian or Jew so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it.

He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.

War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces that take part in such an abominable business.

I know people in Germany whose private lives are guided by virtually unbounded altruism, but who were awaiting the declaration of unlimited submarine warfare with the greatest impatience… These people must be shown that it is necessary to have consideration for non-Germans as worthy equals, that it is essential to earn the trust of foreign countries, in order to be able to exist, that the goals that one sets for oneself cannot be achieved through force and treachery.

The psychological roots of war are, in my opinion, biologically rooted in the aggressive nature of the male creature… Some animals—the bull and the rooster—surpass us in this regard.

There is no other salvation for civilization and even for the human race than in the creation of a world government, with the security of nations founded upon law. As long as there are sovereign states with their separate armaments and armament secrets, new world wars cannot be avoided.

Nationalism is, in my opinion, nothing more than an idealistic rationalization for militarism and aggression.

Preceding generations have presented us, in a highly developed science and mechanical knowledge, with a most valuable gift which carries with it possibilities of making our life free and beautiful such as no previous generation has enjoyed. But this gift also brings with it dangers to our existence as great as any that have ever threatened it.

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

The war that will end war.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.