Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the futility of war and the future perspective of those who suffer its consequences.
Adam Hochschild's quote expresses the belief that, in the future, society will view the casualties of current wars with deep sorrow and regret, much like how we view the soldiers buried in cemeteries from past conflicts. It critiques the leaders who so carelessly expend lives for their agendas, suggesting that, with time, people will recognize the senselessness and tragedy of such actions.
In practice
During a memorial speech for veterans, one might use this quote to emphasize the costs of war.
For the better part of two centuries, outsiders have been offering explanations that range from racist to learned-sounding - the supposed inferiority of blacks, the heritage of slavery, overpopulation - for why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
There was a time when she had indulged in the hypothetical for hours a day, plotting the map that had led her here. But no life is a line, and hers was an uneven orbit around a dark star, a moth circling a dead bulb, searching for the light it once held.
It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg.
Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message.
Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.
It’s like losing gravity and falling into space – the moment of pitching headlong when the endlessness of space asserts itself and there is no more down, only an eternity of up, and you realize you can fall forever and never run out of stars.
I hate extremes of any kind. Communism [seeks] the domination of the state over the individual... All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument...
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