Scott Westerfeld Quotes

Nothing can justify war.

War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it.

It is better to have a war for justice than peace in injustice.

The measure of civilization in a people is to be found in its just appreciation of the wrongfulness of war.

As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral.

Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever.

I think anything is better than war. The extent to which one can negotiate with fanatics, I have no idea. I don't know.

War makes thieves and peace hangs them.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

The Moral Equivalent of War

I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another.

It is very difficult to do one's duty. I was considered a barbarian because at the storming of the Praga, 7,000 people were killed. Europe says that I am a monster. I myself have read this in the papers, but I would have liked to talk to people about this and ask them: is it not better to finish a war with the death of 7,000 people rather than to drag it on and kill 100,000.

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations—acting individually or in concert—will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

The essential effect of war on a citizen's conscience is nothing but a legalization and glorification of things that in times of peace constitute crime.

Unfortunately, we have warring in the world, so the youngest minds, the brilliant minds, are sent off to war. I think that, you know, you have brilliant people with great possibilities and that's why I really am not really for war. I really am not.

I am totally against the war but violence is part of mankind and it's going to happen, but as musicians I think we've got to step up and say 'come on'.

I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.

With the war in Iraq, he [Dalai Lama] feels that the causes of that lie maybe hundreds of years ago, and he says, "What we do now may have consequences far into the future that we will never see."

In a civil war… every side is wrong. It’s hopeless to try to untangle it. Everyone is a victim.

If we do not end war - war will end us. Everybody says that, millions of people believe it, and nobody does anything.

I believe all war to be wholly wrong.

War should always be the absolute last resort.

The term 'just war' is an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.

I don't think there's any way that war can have a place in peace. I think that peace is the active and difficult resistance to the temptation of war; it is the prerogative and the obligation of the injured. Peace is something that has to be vigilantly maintained; it is a vigilance, and it involves temptation, and it does not mean we as human beings are not aggressive. This is a mistaken way of understanding non-violence.