WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:34:10 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg barbarians – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Howard, Robert E. -- Letter to H. P. Lovecraft (5 Dec 1935) https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/34080/ https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/34080/#respond Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:17:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34080 You express amazement at my statement that “civilized” men try to justify their looting, butchering and plundering by claiming that these things are done in the interests of art, progress and culture. That this simple statement of fact should cause surprise, amazes me in return. People claiming to possess superior civilization have always veneered their rapaciousness by such claims […] Your friend Mussolini is a striking modern-day example. In that speech of his I heard translated he spoke feelingly of the expansion of civilization. From time to time he has announced; “The sword and civilization go hand in hand!” “Wherever the Italian flag waves it will be as a symbol of civilization!” “Africa must be brought into civilization!” It is not, of course, because of any selfish motive that he has invaded a helpless country, bombing, burning and gassing both combatants and non-combatants by the thousands. Oh, no, according to his own assertions it is all in the interests of art, culture and progress, just as the German war-lords were determined to confer the advantages of Teutonic Kultur on a benighted world, by fire and lead and steel. Civilized nations never, never have selfish motives for butchering, raping and looting; only horrid barbarians have those.


Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author
Letter to H. P. Lovecraft (5 Dec 1935) ]]> https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/34080/feed/ 0 34080 Howard, Robert E. -- Letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (Jul 1923) https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/33912/ https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/33912/#respond Tue, 24 May 2016 13:45:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=33912 When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in. … Who will our invaders be? From whence will they come?


Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author
Letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (Jul 1923) ]]> https://wist.info/howard-robert-e/33912/feed/ 0 33912