People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical read more

Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you read more

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.

Violence does even justice unjustly.

Violence does even justice unjustly.

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life read more

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life and the environment.

All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power.

All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power.

Violence has no constitutional sanction; and every government from the beginning has moved against it. But where grievances pile high read more

Violence has no constitutional sanction; and every government from the beginning has moved against it. But where grievances pile high and most of the elected spokesmen represent the Establishment, violence may be the only effective response.

Nonviolence doesn't always work -- but violence never does.

Nonviolence doesn't always work -- but violence never does.

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue -- and -- thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never solves anything I would read more

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue -- and -- thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never solves anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler would referee. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor; and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.