Conquest Quotes - Page 11

• To discover one's own spiritual poverty is to achieve a positive conquest by the spirit.

  William Barrett

  Spiritual, Poverty, Achieve

  William Barrett (2011). “Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy”, p.46, Anchor

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• The written history of the world is largely a history of warfare, because the states within which we live came into existence largely through conquest, civil strife, or struggles for independence.

  John Keegan

  War, Struggle, Independence

  John Keegan (2012). “A History of Warfare”, p.886, Vintage

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• In a general view, there are few conquests that repay the charge of making them, and mankind are pretty well convinced that it can never be worth their while to go to war for profit's sake. If they are made war upon, their country invaded, or their existence at stake, it is their duty to defend and preserve themselves, but in every other light, and from every other cause, is war inglorious and detestable.

  Thomas Paine

  Country, Peace, War

  Thomas Paine (1819). “The American Crisis”, p.104

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• Asked if Stalin was an antisemite, Robert Conquest replied: Yes, but it hardly noticed. He was broadly and generously anti-human.

  John Derbyshire

  War, Cold, Humans

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• The idea that the State originated to serve any kind of social purpose is completely unhistorical. It originated in conquest and confiscation - that is to say, in crime. It originated for the purpose of maintaining the division of society into an owning-and-exploiting class and a propertyless dependent class - that is, for a criminal purpose.

  Albert J. Nock

  Class, Ideas, Criminals

  "The Criminality of the State". "The American Mercury" Magazine, March 1939.

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• Strauss admits to being obsessed by his mother's rejection, and with the resultant rents in self-esteem. The Game echoes with disturbingly abusive comments leveled at his adolescent self, a self he feels was unacceptable. With bravado, he expresses regret that he didn't rack up more sexual conquests in his teens; in person, he expresses a truer regret that he was intimidated by life itself.

  Antonella Gambotto-Burke

  Mother, Regret, Self Esteem

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• Alexander's achievement was not the conquest of India, but the feat of actually getting there and his two years in India were more of a geographical expedition than a military campaign. .... a Greek army had reached what they regarded as the end of the earth. They had pitted themselves against the ultimate as bravely as the yogins had struggled to break through the limits of the human psyche. Where mystics had conquered interior space, Alexander explored the farthest reaches of the physical world. .... like many of the axial sages, he was constantly 'straining after more'.

  Karen Armstrong

  Military, Army, Years

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• In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.

  H. L. Mencken

  Victory, Moral, Disaster

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.199, Vintage

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• To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of human life.

  Laozi

  Loss, Joy, Human Life

  Laozi, Sepharial (1904). “The Book of the Simple Way of Laotze: A New Translation from the Text of the Tao-teh-king”

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• To delight in conquest is to delight in slaughter.

  Laozi

  War, Delight, Slaughter

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• War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.

  Tacitus

  War, Party, Lays

  Tacitus (2007). “The Annals & The Histories”, p.448, Modern Library

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• All our efforts to attain immortality-by statesmanship, by conquest, by science or the arts-are equally vain in the long run, because the long run is longer than any of us can imagine.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Running, Art, Long

  Sydney J. Harris (1986). “Clearing the ground”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There are only two sorts of greatness: true greatness, which is of a spiritual order, and the old, old lie of world conquest. Conquest is an ersatz greatness.

  Simone Weil

  Spiritual, Lying, Greatness

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.94, Routledge

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• America has always welcomed anyone willing to assimilate to its national character. But radical Islam rejects assimilation and is bent on the conquest of our national character.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Character, America, Islam

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• Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the conscience of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Atheism, Citizens

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.147

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• The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.

  Will Durant

  Islamic, Order, Civilization

  "Story of Civilization Our Oriental Heritage". Book by Will Durant, 1935.

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• When an unconquered country is conquered, people are killed... . That the beloved of the Gods finds very pitiful and grievous. ... If anyone does him wrong, it will be forgiven as far as it can be forgiven... . The beloved of the Gods considers that the greatest of all victories is the victory of righteousness.

  Ashoka

  Country, People, Victory

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• London clubland divides itself between the St James's refuge for toffs, and the Conquest of Cool, for the arts and media.

  Peter York

  Art, Media, London

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• Each conquest of distance reveals greater distance.

  Martin E. Marty

  Distance, Space, Greater

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• In the case of a state that is seeking not conquest but the maintenance of its security, the aim is fulfilled if the threat is removed - if the enemy is led to abandon his purpose.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Enemy, Purpose

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• The economy is still substantially that of the fur trade, still based on the same general kinds of commercial items: technology, weapons, ornaments, novelties, and drugs. The one great difference is that by now the revolution has deprived the mass of consumers of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water. Air access remains the only necessity that the average user can still get for himself, and the revolution has imposed a heavy tax on that by way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.

  Wendell Berry

  Military, Independent, Technology

  Wendell Berry (2015). “The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture”, p.16, Counterpoint

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• All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth--including America, of course-- consist of pilferings from other people's wash. No tribe, howsoever insignificant, and no nation, howsoever mighty occupies a foot of land that was not stolen.

  Mark Twain

  Land, Feet, America

  Mark Twain (2015). “Following the Equator: "A Journey Around the World"”, p.648, eKitap Projesi

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• The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest; The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless! The last corruption of degenerate man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Lust, Gold

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.328

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• Rivalry adds so much to the charms of one's conquests.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Add, Rivalry, Charm

  Louisa May Alcott (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)”, p.5102, Delphi Classics

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• The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure-- fearlessness and achievement.

  Joseph Campbell

  Adventure, Yield, Achievement

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.188, Anchor

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