text: war is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war is much worse when a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master such war degrades a people a war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good and which is their own war carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice is often the means of their regeneration a man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself as long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind human beings must be willing when need is to do battle for the one against the other