David Mitchell - War Quotes

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Another war is always coming, Robert. They are never properly extinguished. What sparks war? The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence, is the instrument of this dreadful will… The nation state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions. QED, nations are entities whose laws are written by violence. Thus it ever was, so ever shall it be.

David Mitchell
War's an auction where whoever can pay the most in damage and still be standing wins.

David Mitchell
War may be an auction for countries. For soldiers it's a lottery.

David Mitchell
Wars are never cured, they just go into remission for a few years.

David Mitchell
Diplomacy… mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.

David Mitchell
Only professional diplomats, inveterate idiots and women view diplomacy as a long-term substitute for war.

David Mitchell
Science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity's powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation and our civilisation drives itself to extinction.

David Mitchell
Wars do not combust without warning. They begin as little fires over the horizon. Wars approach. A wise man watches for the smoke, and prepares to vacate the neighborhood, just like Ayrs and Jocasta. My worry is that the next war will be so big, nowhere with a decent restaurant will be left untouched.

David Mitchell