“I appeal for cessation of hostilities, not because you are too exhausted to fight, but because war is bad in essence. You want to kill Nazism. You will never kill it by its indifferent adoption.”
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About this quote
Fighting an evil by taking up its own methods doesn't destroy it — it spreads it. Brutality answered with brutality just trains more people in cruelty. The claim here is that how you fight decides what survives, so means and ends can never be pried apart.
When to use it
- Countering a rival's smear campaign by spreading lies about them, until the whole office turns toxic.
- A nation condemning torture while quietly torturing its own detainees, hardening the very cruelty it claims to oppose.
- A parent screaming at a child to make the child stop screaming, and teaching only that shouting wins.