🇺🇸 Today, I’d like to post two excerpts of French classic authors of the 18th and 19th centuries, denouncing the horror and the absurdity of war.
📚« Tant que le caprice de quelques hommes fera loyalement égorger des milliers de nos frères, la partie du genre humain consacrée à l’héroïsme sera ce qu’il y a de plus affreux dans la nature entière. »
Voltaire
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
This is an excerpt from the philosophical dictionary, under the article “war,” which is defined as the “deed of few capricious people scarifying thousands of lives.”
📚« La mort stupide eut honte, et l’officier fit grâce. »
Victor Hugo
L’année terrible (1872)
This excerpt from a poem by Victor Hugo, the author of “Les Misérables,” is a cruel conversation between a child and an enemy soldier who threatens to kill him. I am posting the last verse where the soldier feels ashamed in front of the innocence and honesty of the child, a line emphasizing the stupidity and absurdity of war.