War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that
nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for
which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than
his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of
being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men
than himself.
-- John Stuart Mill. "The Contest in America". 1862
