Still, the danger of the practice of violence, even if it moves consciously within a non-extremist framework of short-term goals, will always be that the means overwhelm the end. If goals are not achieved rapidly, the result will not merely be defeat but the introduction of the practice of violence into the whole body politic. Action is irreversible, and a return to the status quo in case of defeat is always unlikely. The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
“Reflections on Violence,” New York Review of Books (27 Feb 1969)
(Source)
Quotations about:
escalation
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Political campaigns tend to be exercises in progressive degeneration. The steady increase, week after week, in excitement and strain and weariness produces an oversimplification of issues, an over dramatization of alternatives, a growing susceptibility to extreme and catastrophic statements. Candidates find themselves shouting things in the fall that they would never dream of whispering in the summer.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)
(Source)
Life is not made up of dramatic incidents — even the life of a nation. It is made up of slowly evolving events and processes, which newspapers, by a score of different forms of emphasis, can reasonably attempt to explore from day to day. But television news jerks from incident to incident. For the real world of patient and familiar arrangements, it substitutes an unreal world of constant activity, and the effect is already apparent in the way which the world behaves. It is almost impossible, these days, to consider any problem or any event except as a crisis; and, by this very way of looking at it, it in fact becomes a crisis.
Henry Fairlie (1924-1990) British journalist and social critic
“Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)
It demonstrated that old adage: never bring a gun to a fight where the other guy has a time-machine and tomorrow’s newspapers.
James Nicoll (b. 1961) Canadian reviewer, editor
“OTT: If ye break faith with us who die,” rec.arts.sf.written, Usenet (27 Apr 2006)
(Source)
CLARENCE: A little fire is quickly trodden out,
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, sc. 8, l. 7ff (4.8.7-8) (1590)
(Source)
If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting it off.
Olin Miller (fl. early 20th C) American humorist
(Attributed)
No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens? It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realized that they’re so far over the line that they can’t remember where it was.
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
[Nunca se le ha de abrir la puerta al menor mal, que siempre vendrán tras él otros muchos, y mayores, en celada.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:We must not open the door to the least evil, for others, and those greater too, which lie in ambush come always after.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]Never open the door to a small misfortune, for many more always creep in behind it, and greater ones, under its protection.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]Never open the door to the least of evils, for many other, greater ones lurk outside.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
