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.
Politics is a science. You can demonstrate that you are right and that others are wrong.
despite all our desperate, eternal attempts to separate, contain and mend, categories always leak.
I want to be black, to know black, to luxuriate in whatever I might be calling blackness at any particular time, but to do so in order to come out on the other side, to experience a humanity that is neither colorless nor reducible to color.
Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.
Of course I litter the public highway. Every chance I get. After all, it's not the beer cans that are ugly; it's the highway that is ugly.
To think that before the hills were formed, or the channels of the sea were scooped out, God loved me; that from everlasting to everlasting His mercy is upon His people. Is not that a consolation?
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