War is not the Ugliest of Things
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
–John Stuart Mill
February 27th, 2004 at 10:01 am
Do you happen to know in which of John Stuart Mill’s publications that quotation can be found? Thanks.
February 27th, 2004 at 11:14 am
I believe this quote was received via the Federalist mailing list. The list sometimes cites the source and sometimes not. Either way I seldom add it here though I may reconsider since I received occassional requests such as yours.
http://www.federalist.com/
August 4th, 2004 at 9:33 am
I found it! The ACTUAL quote is “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing [ital]worth[ital] a war, is worse. …A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cards more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no change of being free, unless make and kept so by the exertions of beter men than himself.”
SOURCE: John Stuart Mill; originally published as “The Contest in America” in Fraser’s Magazine, Issue LXV, February 1962. This version from “Dissertations and Discussions” Volume III (1867), pp. 179-205.