Jules Claretie: A sensible man can but have one opinion on the question of war and peace

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
French writers on war and peace
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Jules Claretie
(As cited by Leo Tolstoy)
A sensible man can but have one opinion on the question of war and peace. Humanity was created to live – to live for the purpose of perfecting its existence by peaceful labor. The mutual relations of cordiality which are promoted and preached by the Universal Congress of Peace may be but a dream perhaps, yet certainly is the most delightful of dreams. The vision of the land of promise is ever before our eyes, and upon the soil of the future the harvest will ripen, secure from the plowing of the projectile, of the crushing of cannon-wheels.

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