Gentlemen don't read each other's mail.
Henry L. StimsonRead
When all the arguments have been forgotten, this central fact will remain. The two nations fought a single war, and their quarrels were the quarrels of brothers.
Interpretation
The essence of conflict can sometimes reveal deeper connections between opposing sides.
This quote by Henry L. Stimson highlights the idea that despite differences and disputes, there can be an intrinsic bond between conflicting parties. It suggests that the relationship between nations, akin to that of brothers, can transcend conflicts, and what remains significant is the shared struggle rather than the disagreements.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about reconciliation between rival nations.
Gentlemen don't read each other's mail.
I think that we had a different view of what the 21st century could be like, with much more of a sense, from our perspective, of trying to have an interdependent world: looking at solving regional conflicts, having strength in alliances, operating within some kind of a sense that we were part of the international community and not outside of it.
We continue to blame the poor for their own condition. They are lazy. We do not want to know that the poorest of the poor are toddlers under three years of age.
In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past.
Enjoy the elastic present, which can accommodate as little or as much as you want to put in there. Stretch it out, live inside of it.
There's this romantic idea that's built up around war. But the pragmatic view is there are tons of people of my generation who have lost their lives, lost their marriages, or lost their health as a consequence of being sent to wars which could have been avoided.
If you have not linked yourself to true emptiness, you will never understand the art of peace.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.