Dylan Miles

“Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that’s what he wants.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

“The fearful necessity of war ought only to be taken seriously and sternly. There are lies enough in the world as it is. War should be treated as a hard fact; not as a game; otherwise it becomes a mere pastime for the idle and frivolous. There is no more honourable class than the military, and yet to what extremities they are driven to gain their ends!—In fact, what is the aim and end of war?—Murder.—And its means?—Treachery and spying.—Its procedure?—Pillage and robbery for the maintenance of the men! . . . That is to say, falsehood and dishonesty in every form, under the name of the Art of War.—What, I ask you, is the rule to which military men are bound? To slavery, that is to say, to a rigorous discipline, which condones idleness, depravity, drunkenness—and yet they are universally respected, except the Emperor respected. Every monarch in the world, the man who has killed the greatest number of his fellow creatures wins the highest rewards. A million of men meet—to-morrow, for instance—to solemn thanksgivings for the massacre and maiming of the figures? Why, Te Deums are loudly boasted of, for the more men killed the more brilliant it is thought to be, and the victory is acceptable to God to be.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“They are subjected to all manner of taxes: the tithe, the hearth tax and the capitation tax. When all those are paid, they are left with a pittance, which means they spend their lives struggling to survive. I can understand their despair. And I can understand their anger when they look at the nobility and the clergy and see them enjoying lives of luxury, unburdened by any tax. What astonishes me is that they have put up with it for so long. I can only begin to imagine the suffering that has driven those people in Seurre to action.”
― Simon Scarrow, Young Bloods

“To most of the world sucess is never bad. I remember how, when Hitler moved unchecked and triumphant, many honourable men sought and found virtues in him. And Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Vichy collaborated for the good of France, and whatever else Stalin was, he was strong. Strength and success-they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent