War is the matter which fills all history, and consequently the only or
almost the only view in which we can see the external of political
society is in a hostile shape; and the only actions to which we have
always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the
destruction of one another.--_Burke._

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on
their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory
will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.--_Gibbon._

The fate of a battle is the result of a moment,--of a thought: the
hostile forces advance with various combinations, they attack each other
and fight for a certain time; the critical moment arrives, a mental
flash decides, and the least reserve accomplishes the
object.--_Napoleon._

The feast of vultures, and the waste of life.--_Byron._

I abhor bloodshed, and every species of terror erected into a system, as
remedies equally ferocious, unjust, and inefficacious against evils that
can only be cured by the diffusion of liberal ideas.--_Mazzini._

~Weakness.~--Weakness is thy excuse, and I believe it; weakness to resist
Philistian gold: what murderer, what traitor, parricide, incestuous,
sacrilegious, but may plead it? All wickedness is weakness.--_Milton._

The strength of man sinks in the hour of trial; but there doth live a
Power that to the battle girdeth the weak.--_Joanna Baillie._

How many weak shoulders have craved heavy burdens?--_Joubert._

Weakness is born vanquished.--_Madame Swetchine._

~Wealth.~--An accession of wealth is a dangerous predicament for a man. At
first he is stunned, if the accession be sudden; he is very humble and
very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him
more sensible, and soon he thinks himself so.--_Cecil._

If Wealth come, beware of him, the smooth, false friend! There is
treachery in his proffered hand; his tongue is eloquent to tempt; lust
of many harms is lurking in his eye; he hath a hollow heart; use him
cautiously.--_Tupper._

Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at
ease, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those
who begin by loving gold as a servant, finish by becoming themselves its
slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth
without independence.--_Colton._

~Weeping.~--What women would do if they could not cry, nobody knows! What
po