Martin Amis on war and peace

Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.

Being inoffensive, and being offended, are now the twin addictions of the culture.

For those thousands in the south tower, the second plane meant the end of everything. For us, its glint was the worldflash of a coming future.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787). Manuscript at the Library of Congress.

• Liberty

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969The Chance for Peace (1953)

• Guns

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

George S. Patton1885–1945