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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Montaigne: Selections on war
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Michel de Montaigne
Translated by George B. Ives
So many names, so many victories and conquests buried in oblivion make it ridiculous to hope to perpetuate our names by the capture of ten insignificant troops and an unimportant little fortress that is known only by its fall. The proud pomp of so many foreign nations, the swollen majesty of so many courts and stately mansions, steadies us and permits our sight to endure the brilliancy of our own without blinking…
(Of the Education of Children)
This belief is in some sort related to that other so ancient one, the thought that heaven and nature were gratified by our massacring and murdering…
(Of Moderation)
We can, then, rightly call them barbarians with respect to the rules of reason, but not with respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every sort of barbarism. Their warfare is wholly noble and honourable, and has as much excuse and beauty as that malady of mankind can have. With them it has no other motive than simply eagerness of prowess. They are not at strife for the conquest of new territories…
(Of Cannibals)
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