War proves nothing. To kill a man does not prove that he was in the wrong. Bloodletting cannot change men’s spirits, neither can the evil of men’s thoughts be driven out by blows. If I go to my neighbor’s house, and break her furniture, and smash her pictures, and bind her children captive, it does not prove that I am fitter to live than she – yet according to ethics of nations it does. I have conquered her and she must pay me for my trouble; and her house and all that is left in it belongs to my heirs and successors, forever. That is war!
