The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three super-states, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This
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'If the victor had the gods on his side, the vanquished had Cato.'
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They imply, first of all, that it must be a peace without victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it may be understood that no other interpretation was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face them without soft concealments. Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last, only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit. The right state of mind, the right feeling between nations, is as necessary for a lasting peace as is the just settlement of vexed questions of territory or of racial and national allegiance.
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.
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...What are numbers knit By force or custom? Man who man would be, Must rule the empire of himself; in it Must be supreme, establishing his throne On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.
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He who punishes the vanquished fears not the victor.
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The rapture of pursuing is the prize the vanquished gain.
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I have supported my deviations with reasons I did not stop at mere doubt I have vanquished, I have uprooted, I have destroyed everything in my heart that might have interfered with my pleasure.
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Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first book was written.
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Christ's grave was the birthplace of an indestructible belief that death is vanquished and there is life eternal.
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All love is vanquished by a succeeding love.
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It must be a peace without victory.... Victory would mean peace forced upon the losers, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would...
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Vanquished in life, his death By beauty made amends: The passing of his breath Won his defeated ends.
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Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.
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