This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Our flag stands for "liberty and justice for all." Our flag must never be misused or defiled as a bandana for war crimes, as a gag against the people's freedom of speech and conscience or as a fig leaf to hide the shame of charlatans in high public office, who violate our Constitution, our laws and our founding fathers' framework for accountable, responsive government.
Conscience | Freedom of speech | Freedom | Government | Justice | Liberty | Office | People | Public | Shame | Speech | War |
Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL
It is only necessary to make war with five things: with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city, and the discord of families.
Robert Lynd, fully Robert Wilson Lynd
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
Ruth Benedict, born Ruth Fulton
War in our own civilization is as good an illustration as one can take of the destructive lengths to which the development of a culturally selected trait may go. If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits.
Civilization | Good | Justify | War | Will |
A just war is in the long run far better for a nation’s soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiescence toward wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful consequences of being defeated in war, it must always be remembered that even to be defeated in war is far better than never to have fought at all.
Better | Consequences | Injustice | Injustice | Peace | Soul | War | Wrong |
Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.
David Ben-Gurion, born David Grün
The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values.
Achievement | Character | Wealth | Will |
The body is likened to a small city: like two kings who wage war over a city, each desiring to capture it and rule over it, that is, to govern its inhabitants according to his will so that they obey him in all that he decrees for them, so do the two souls - the G‑dly [soul] and the animal [soul] - wage war against each other over the body and all its organs and limbs. The desire and will of the G‑dly soul is that it alone should rule over the person and direct him, and that all his limbs should obey it and surrender themselves completely to it and become a vehicle for it, and serve as a vehicle for its ten faculties [of intellect and emotion] and three "garments" [thought, speech and action]... and the entire body should be permeated with them alone, to the exclusion of any alien influence, G‑d forbid... While the animal soul desires the very opposite.
Body | Desire | Rule | Soul | Speech | Surrender | War | Will | Govern | Intellect |
Such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide. It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity even if he happens to be a resident of an enemy country... The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.
Danger | Dignity | Enemy | Evil | Existence | Humanity | Individuality | Knowledge | Nature | Danger |
To deal with the true causes of war one must begin by recognizing as of prime relevancy to the solution of the problem the familiar fact that civilization is a partial, incomplete, and, to a great extent, superficial modification of barbarism.
Civilization | War |
Erwin Rommel, fully Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel
Courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.