Henry David Thoreau: War belies the claim that civilization is making rapid progress
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Henry David Thoreau: It is commonly said that history is a chronicle of war
Henry David Thoreau: Taxes enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood
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Henry David Thoreau
Journal
February 26, 1852
We are told to-day that civilization is making rapid progress; the tendency is ever upward; substantial justice is done even by human courts; you may trust the good intentions of mankind. We read to-morrow in the newspapers that the French nation is on the eve of going to war with England to give employment to her army. What is the influence of men of principle, or how numerous are they? How many moral teachers has society? This Russian war is popular. Of course so many as she has will resist her. How many resist her? How many have I heard speak with warning voice? utter wise warnings? The preacher’s standard of morality is no higher than that of his audience. He studies to conciliate his hearers and never to offend them. Does the threatened war between France and England evince any more enlightenment than a war between two savage tribes, as the Iroquois and the Hurons? Is it founded in better reason?
For peace, against war: literary selections 