John Rae quotes:

War is, after all, the universal perversion ... war stories, the pornography of war.

When engaged in safe occupations, and living in healthy countries, men are much more apt to be frugal, than in unhealthy, or hazardous occupations, and in climates pernicious to human life. Sailors and soldiers are prodigals. . . . War and pestilence have always waste and luxury, among the other evils that follow in their train.

Of all human activities, education is the one most likely to give rise to cant, pomposity and fraudulent expertise.