#pretext

If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure. ↗

— John Bright

#argument #balance #balance of power #never #peace

Youth does not require reasons for living, it only needs pretexts. ↗

— Jose Ortega y Gasset

#living #needs #only #pretexts #reasons

If you wish at once to do nothing and be respectable nowadays, the best pretext is to be at work on some profound study. ↗

— Leslie Stephen

#nothing #nowadays #once #pretext #profound

If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another... after the war is on. ↗

— Robert M. La Follette

#another #invent #make #party #pretext

Tyrants seldom want pretexts. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#seldom #tyrants #want

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#disturbances #fearful #mask #more #never