“The spontaneous violence of the masses exposes more about the failure of diplomatic congresses than a thousand resolutions ever could.”

“A farmer watches his orchard burn and calculates the price of this week's negotiations in the lost harvests of next season.”

“All I know is what I read in the papers, and it appears the diplomats talked peace on Monday so the gunners could practice on Tuesday.”

“Observing that the smoke from southern Lebanon rises just as predictably after a negotiation as before it proves the talks are merely a form of weather.”

“A man in a fine suit shakes hands in Washington while another man, smelling of cordite and sweat, sights his weapon on a target across a river.”

“Reason tells you that men who return from speaking of peace to immediately make war are not statesmen but frauds.”

“To claim a distinction between the language of the conference table and the language of the rocket is to cling to a duality that the fire itself consumes.”

“Nothing could be more conducive to a lasting peace than a regular demonstration of its alternative, thus these talks and subsequent salvos form a most rational cycle.”

“The men make history with their documents while the women in both nations count the hours until the shelling resumes.”

“Diagnosing this patient, I find the fever of war breaks out most predictably immediately after the supposed cure of a peace conference is administered.”

“Wager then on the proposition that talks which are followed by fire were never truly talks at all, but merely a prelude.”

“Such events reveal a character in the leaders that prefers the theatrical gesture of negotiation to the hard work of moral consistency.”

“This performance teaches that reason is merely a masquerade costume for men, to be worn at a ball and discarded for more forceful habits at home.”

“It is an admirable custom to first discuss the preservation of lives and then immediately proceed to demonstrate the most efficient means of ending them.”