The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war.
Today the predatory state, or the predatory group of states, with power of total destruction, is no more to be tolerated than the predatory individual.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Predatory entities, whether states or individuals, pose an unacceptable threat to society and must be confronted.
In this quote, Lester B. Pearson highlights the importance of recognizing and addressing the dangers posed by aggressive and harmful entities, whether they be individual aggressors or entire states that wield destructive power. He asserts that just as society cannot tolerate harmful individuals, it must also not permit states that exhibit predatory behavior, calling for collective responsibility and action against such threats to ensure peace and security.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing international relations, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for global unity against oppressive regimes.
More from Lester B. Pearson
All quotes βTrue there has been more talk of peace since 1945 than, I should think, at any other time in history. At least we hear more and read more about it because man's words, for good or ill, can now so easily reach the millions.
And I have lived since - as you have - in a period of cold war, during which we have ensured by our achievements in the science and technology of destruction that a third act in this tragedy of war will result in the peace of extinction.
The life of states cannot, any more than the life of individuals, be conditioned by the force and the will of a unit, however powerful, but by the consensus of a group, which must one day include all states.
We know now that in modern warfare, fought on any considerable scale, there can be no possible economic gain for any side. Win or lose, there is nothing but waste and destruction.
It would be especially tragic if the people who most cherish ideals of peace, who are most anxious for political cooperation on a wider than national scale, made the mistake of underestimating the pace of economic change in our modern world.
Similar quotes
Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded Consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind.
Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.
Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.
The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.
I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.