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Thomas Carlyle: War is a quarrel between two thieves
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Thomas Carlyle: Selections on war
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Thomas Carlyle
From The French Revolution. A History
Battles, in these ages, are transacted by mechanism; with the slightest possible development of human individuality or spontaneity: men now even die, and kill one another, in an artificial manner.
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War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against one other.
(Attributed by Emma Goldman)
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For peace, against war: literary selections 