Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the contrasting values of youth and age in the context of war and peace.
Alec Guinness suggests that young men are often the instigators of wars, driven by virtues such as courage and an optimistic vision for the future. In contrast, older men, having experienced the consequences of conflict, tend to approach peace with a mindset colored by mistrust and caution, highlighting the differences in perspective that come with age and experience.
In practice
In a discussion on the motivations behind historical conflicts.
An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
My language is the sum total of myself.
I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.
Patients who are being kept alive by technology and want to end their lives already have a recognized constitutional right to stop any and all medical interventions, from respirators to antibiotics. They do not need physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.
That saints will aid if men will call; For the blue sky bends over all!
Everlastingly chained to a single little fragment of the Whole, man himself develops into nothing but a fragment; everlastingly in his ear the monotonous sound of the wheel that he turns, he never develops the harmony of his being, and instead of putting the stamp of humanity upon his own nature, he becomes nothing more than the imprint of his occupation or of his specialized knowledge.
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