Conflict quotes

The Art of War, Chapter I 'Laying Plans,' section 18, Lionel Giles translation (1910), original scan leaf 62. 'All warfare is based on deception' begins Giles's section 18 before the examples of seeming unable, inactive, near or far. This remains translation-mediated ancient military strategy, not generic business, relationship or current operational advice.

An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 15 / scan leaf 21, line 297. “Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?” occurs inside the hostile “Paris” / Lord Hervey satire and questions disproportionate punishment. The first edition capitalizes “Butterfly” and “Wheel”; the frozen catalog capitalization is normalized, and the personal/polemical context remains explicit.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case,” Project Gutenberg #42. This is Jekyll’s fictional account of moral and psychological division inside the novel, not a medical or psychological diagnosis.

An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 8 / scan leaf 14, around lines 148–150. After saying Gildon drew his “venal quill,” Pope says he wished him a dinner and did not answer the attack. The first edition reads “sate still,” while the later/normalized Gutenberg #9800 witness underlying the frozen catalog reads “sat still”; this collection wording is retained and the witness variation is disclosed rather than silently rewritten.

Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.

The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, line 2 in the 1717 recension. The retained catalog wording ‘What mighty contests rise from trivial things’ is verified in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717), scan page 157; the 1714 second edition instead reads ‘What mighty Quarrels rise from trivial things,’ so the synchronized source year is 1717. The line is part of Pope’s mock-heroic invocation and should be read as satire.

Ulysses, Episode 2 (“Nestor”), Project Gutenberg #4300. Stephen Dedalus says the line during his conversation with Mr Deasy; it is fictional dialogue inside a modernist novel and should not be flattened into Joyce’s direct historical thesis.

Proverbs 10:12, King James Version.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; one of Franklin’s compact comparisons about disputes and practical judgment.

Meditations, Book VI, in George Long’s translation.

Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, Ad M. Caes. ii. 2. Marcus closes a letter about Fronto’s role in the Herodes Atticus dispute with this sentence. It is personal epistolary reasoning inside a specific conflict, not a universal rule to intervene in every disagreement.

The Art of War, Chapter II “Waging War,” section 19, Lionel Giles translation (1910), printed page 16 / scan leaf 72 in Giles’s original full edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #17405. “In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns” is the chapter’s concluding strategic principle immediately before the statement about the commander and the people’s fate. It remains ancient battlefield/statecraft argument, not current military operational advice or a context-free productivity maxim.

Speech in Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857.

Matthew 5:9, King James Version.

The Art of War, Chapter II “Waging War,” section 6, Lionel Giles translation (1910), printed page 12 / scan leaf 68 in Giles’s original full edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #17405. “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare” closes the opening argument about weapons, strength, treasure and state resources being exhausted by a protracted campaign. It remains ancient military-strategy argument in translation, not a generic business, relationship or current geopolitical rule.

The Art of War, Chapter III “Attack by Stratagem,” section 2, Lionel Giles translation (1910), printed page 17 / scan leaf 73 in the original Giles edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #17405. “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting” contrasts mere battlefield victory with achieving the strategic objective without direct combat. This remains ancient military-strategy argument in translation, not generic advice for business, relationships or ordinary personal conflict.

Rights of Man, Part I, Conclusion; represented from Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg #3742 collection. The passage attributes national hostility to old systems of government rather than to an inevitable enmity between people.

Up from Slavery, Chapter XI, “Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington says he learned from General Armstrong to reject racial hatred and applies that lesson specifically to hostility and wrongs inflicted on Black Americans; the historical context remains explicit rather than becoming generic advice to ignore mistreatment.

Dhammapada 201, Max Müller translation; the line appears in the chapter on happiness and contrasts competitive victory with contentment.

The Art of War, Chapter XI 'The Nine Situations,' section 19, Lionel Giles translation (1910), original scan leaf 178 / printed page 122. 'Rapidity is the essence of war' introduces the instruction to exploit unreadiness, unexpected routes and unguarded positions; it remains historical battlefield strategy, not current operational guidance.

Beyond Good and Evil, aphorism 146, in Helen Zimmern’s public-domain English translation.

Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, Ad M. Caes. iii. 5. Marcus replies after Fronto agrees to moderate his prosecution in the Herodes Atticus dispute. The sentence concerns forensic restraint and personal feeling in that historical exchange.