Lester B. Pearson
Politician
1897-04-23
Quotes by Lester B. Pearson
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Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
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Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
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Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.
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No state, furthermore, unless it has aggressive military designs such as those which consumed Nazi leaders in the thirties, is likely to divert to defense any more of its resources and wealth and energy than seems necessary.
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Today the predatory state, or the predatory group of states, with power of total destruction, is no more to be tolerated than the predatory individual.
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The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war.
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It would be especially tragic if the people who most cherish ideals of peace, who are most anxious for political cooperation on a wider than national scale, made the mistake of underestimating the pace of economic change in our modern world.
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We know now that in modern warfare, fought on any considerable scale, there can be no possible economic gain for any side. Win or lose, there is nothing but waste and destruction.
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As a soldier, I survived World War I when most of my comrades did not.
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The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants and for peace like retarded pygmies.
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