David James Elliott Quotes

Soccer isn't very social. Plus, if you don't like someone on the other team, you can do something about it.

I don't have any concerns fighting a teammate. It's a sport. To me, it doesn't really mean anything.

I'm against the fighting. But sometimes when you're trying to help your team, trying to win the games, there are moments when you need to get a little aggressive.

I grew up playing in lots of physical battles against lots of players. It's something I enjoy. I'm a big lad myself, so I feel I can handle myself in a battle.

Serious sport is war minus the shooting.

As a lawyer, I could engage in killer litigation with the best of them. It was war, after all.

Football is very masculine and, to me, a metaphor for war.

Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.

We humans are really good at forming groups to compete, and then dissolving the groups and reforming them along different lines to compete in a different way.

You can have the best people in the business, but if they're not collaborating - and they're butting heads - then it's all going to go south.

I hate competition.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

Every soccer player can be on the edge, at the limit, be the bad guy. We have to get used to it. Sometimes I am one of those.

You could argue that war is always an irrational act, and yet many states enter into military conflict out of rational calculation or national interest or the stability or longevity of their regime.

Sports is like a war without the killing.

We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can't come up with real lasting solutions!

Man is a competitive creature, and the seeds of conflict are built deep into our genes. We fought each other on the savannah and only survived against great odds by organising ourselves into groups which would have had a common purpose, giving morale and fortitude.

We shall certainly not drift into war, but go to war if we do, because we intend it and have a purpose we mean to accomplish.

The causes of war are the same as the causes of competition among individuals: acquisitiveness, pugnacity, and pride; the desire for food, land, materials, fuels, mastery. The state has our instincts without our restraints.

[Commenting on football:] To see some of our best-educated boys spending the afternoon knocking each other down, while thousands cheer them on, hardly gives a picture of a peace-loving nation.

In wartime the herd instinct rise …

Men go to war for fear, honor or interest.

We seek a logical understanding of mass violence, but war and civil strife rarely explode because of rational grievances. Complaints about oppression, poverty or injustice may serve as superficial catalysts, but few wars can be traced to objective decision-making by the dispassionate leaders of cool-headed populations. War is an act of passion, not of policy.

When you fight -- fight to win

Societies organized for the interplay of individual self-interest can collapse into manic tribalism, if not nihilistic violence.