quotations about neutrality
Neutrality is no favourite with Providence, for we are so formed that it is scarcely possible for us to stand neuter in our hearts, although we may deem it prudent to appear so in our actions.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Irresolute Princes, to escape immediate danger, commonly follow the neutral path, in most instances to their destruction.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
The unrestricted right of war is the historical foundation of absolute neutrality. The foundation vanishes in a system which purports to prohibit war.
HAROLD JOSEPH LASKI
Politica
Be independent in everything; be neutral in nothing.
MICHAEL WALSH
attributed, Day's Collacon
And it will always happen that he who is not your friend will invite you to neutrality, while he who is your friend will call on you to declare yourself openly in arms.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
Neutrality is a choice which is not morally indifferent, if the conflict itself is not morally indifferent.
ANDREW GRAHAM
Neutrality and Impartiality: The University and Political Commitment
The metaphysical apologia at least betrayed the injustice of the established order through the incongruence of concept and reality. The impartiality of scientific language deprived what was powerless of the strength to make itself heard and merely provided the existing order with a neutral sign for itself. Such neutrality is more metaphysical than metaphysics.
THEODOR ADORNO
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Neutrality, as a lasting principle, is an evidence of weakness, and is rather dictated by the rivalry of other powers ... than by own choice.
LAJOS KOSSUTH
Kossuth in New England
Absolute neutrality is in fact a corollary of the institution of war as a prerogative right of sovereign States. In so far as this right exists unrestricted, absolute neutrality follows as clear duty.
HAROLD JOSEPH LASKI
Politica
While we enforced the neutrality which we prepared to observe, we declared at the same time that that neutrality must cease if British interests were assailed or menaced. Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own, have denounced this policy as a selfish policy. My Lord Mayor, it is as selfish as patriotism.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
speech at the Guildhall, London, November 9, 1877
Neutrality should never be observed by a nation, when the honor and interest of its people are at stake.
JAMES ELLIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Whatever neutrality is, it is not very useful to anybody, and time is running out. If we do not do useful things whenever it is possible or necessary to do them, we shall soon be totally departed from the human scene, and forgotten, or remembered only for having disappeared.
WILLIAM SAROYAN
An Armenian Trilogy
The rights of neutrality will only be respected, when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
The Federalist Papers, November 23, 1787
My leading idea was the establishment of a journal removed alike from servile partisanship on the one hand and from gagged, mincing neutrality on the other.
HORACE GREELEY
Recollections of a Busy Life
Neutrality is inherently dependent upon the baseline one chooses to use in describing it, and thus it does not exist apart from these baselines.
FRANK S. RAVITCH
Masters of Illusion: The Supreme Court and the Religion Clauses
There is in some a dispassionate neutrality of mind, which, though it generally passes for good temper, can neither gratify nor warm us; it must indeed be granted that these men can only negatively offend; but then it should also be remembered that they cannot positively please.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims, Characters, and Reflections
The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
speech in Chicago, October 5, 1937
Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed in certain ways, neutrality means accepting the way things are now. It is a world of clashing interests -- war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism -- and it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts.
HOWARD ZINN
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
DESMOND TUTU
attributed, Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage
Neutrality is dangerous, whereby thou becomest a necessary prey to the conqueror.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridon