Denis Diderot: War is contest between beast and savage

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
French writers on war and peace
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Denis Diderot
From Supplement to Bougainville’s “Voyage”
Translated by Jane Stewart and Jonathan Kemp
Every war is born from the common claim to the same property. One civilized man has a common claim with another civilized man to the possession of a field of which each occupies one end; and this field becomes the subject of dispute between them.
And the tiger has a common claim, with the savage, to the possession of a forest; that is the first of all claims and the oldest cause of war…

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