Torquato Tasso Quotes
A fool is he that comes to preach or prate,
When men with swords their right and wrong debate.
[It., Chi conta i colpi e la dovuta offesa,
Mentr' arde la tenzon, misura e pesa?]
Tasso, Torquato. Jerusalem Delivered. Translated by Edward Fairfax, Colonial Press, 1901, p. 95.
Attila the Hun. They were discussing a structure for negotiating Attila’s grievance against Rome.
While this was a common attitude for years before, the horrors of World War II produced a general revulsion to war and an awareness that war between two nations spills over to other states in the region and in an era of globalization, effects countries in other parts of the world. So there has been a tendency to use diplomacy endlessly, even after "things have gone too far". Historically, when things reached that point, the parties did fight it out, and when one was weakened sufficiently, negotiations and diplomacy could then be fruitful.
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099.
