Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The god of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth.
Wut’s words to them whose faith an’ truth
On war’s red techstone rang true metal;
Who ventered life an’ love an’ youth
For the gret prize o’ death in battle?
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,—Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!
He whose conquest is not conquered again, into whose conquest no one in this world enters, by what track can you lead him, the Awakened, the Omniscient, the trackless?
A commission in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found insufferable not to budge from the town; and men only seek conversation and entering games, because they cannot remain with pleasure at home.
Hence he who relies on the strength of his forces does not conquer; and a tree which is strong will fill the out-stretched arms, and thereby invites the feller.
Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner, because indeed their part is the most essential; they establish themselves by force, the others by show.
One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they should have no occasion to don or use them.
There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious. Thus it is that when opposing weapons are actually crossed, he who deplores the situation conquers.
And with Caesar to take in his hand the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, “All these will I relinquish if you will show me the fountain of the Nile.”
Alexander and Pompeius, and Caius Caesar, after so often completely destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from life.
Kings are said to have long arms; but every man should have long arms, and should pluck his living, his instruments, his power, and his knowing from the sun, moon, and stars.
In all battles, if you await the issue, each fighter has prospered according to his right. His right and his might, at the close of the account, were the same.
Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With his back to the field and his feet to the foe,
And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame.
A state may be ruled by measures of correction; weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity; but the kingdom is made one’s own only by freedom from action and purpose.
No working world, any more than a fighting world, can be led on without a noble chivalry of work, and laws and fixed rules which follow out of that—far nobler than any chivalry of fighting war.
Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
If all were to follow your example, none would dig a trench, none would cast a rampart around the camp, none would keep watch, or expose himself to danger; but all turn out useless for the service of war …. Thus it is here also.
The body is a machine of the nature of an army… Of this army each cell is a soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system headquarters and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system the commissariat.