Quote#Peace
I do not believe that peace either ought to be or will be permanent…
Quote byWilliam James · 1842–1910
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Moral Equivalent of War (1906).
English (original)
I do not believe that peace either ought to be or will be permanent on this globe, unless the states, pacifically organized, preserve some of the old elements of army-discipline. A permanently successful peace-economy cannot be a simple pleasure-economy.
— William James
More from William James
The stronghold of the determinist argument is the antipathy to the idea of chance...This notion of alternative possibility, this admission that any one of several things may come to pass is, after all, only a roundabout name for chance.
"What is meant by saying that my choice of which way to walk home after the lecture is ambiguous and matter of chance?...It means that both Divinity Avenue and Oxford Street are called but only one, and that one either one, shall be chosen.
Freedom is only necessity understood.
The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.
All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.
We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.