In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.
Interpretation
War disrupts the natural order of life and death, reversing the expected roles of parents and children.
This quote by Herodotus reflects on the tragic consequences of war, emphasizing how it alters the natural progression of life where typically, parents pass before their children. In peaceful circumstances, it is natural for sons to bury their fathers, but the devastation of war leads to the unnatural scenario where fathers must bury their sons, highlighting the deep sorrow and disruption caused by conflict.
In practice
In a speech advocating for peace, this quote can underscore the devastating impacts of war.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Heaven but the vision of fulfilled desire, and Hell the shadow from a soul on fire.
The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles is a parody of the sun and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the Eastern world. Every thing told of Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called Sunday.
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.
Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return.
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