3 Quotes by Francis Canavan

Not many years ago there were people in this country who would tell you that there are no absolute moral principles and that we should not presume to impose our principles on others, but of course the Vietnam War was absolutely immoral.

The word “progressive,” for example. “It will never be known,” said Charles Peguy, ″what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.” Yet the word is meaningless until we add meaning to it. It suggests movement in the right direction, but we have no idea what direction that is until we learn what goal we are progressing towards and why we should move toward it. Progressives seldom say; they just assume that everyone knows.

All men want peace but, as St. Augustine remarked, they want it on their own terms; hence the prevalence of wars. It is doubtful if anyone ever brought about peace simply by being for it or prevented war by being against war as such. On the contrary, turning “peace” into a political slogan may help to bring on a war.