Pax Hominibus Bonae Voluntatis by Aleister Crowley in International, Dec 1917.

“Even if I prove that the other man is dishonest in his belief in the righteousness of submarine warfare or whatever it may be, the situation is not changed at all. He has a perfect right to be dishonest if he wants to.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “It may be a delusion on their part; but they have it; and we have to act on the assumption that they have it.”
  2. “So long, then, as we are true to ourselves, it is as with William Schwenck Gilbert, ‘You are right and I am right and everyone of us is right.'”
  3. “Having purchased my tie and wept together about Bond street, we began to talk about the war. I said to him: ‘If I had come into this shop (or should I say store) with the firm conviction that you were a dangerous maniac, thirsting for my blood, that you were insensible to every feeling of humanity, that the fiercest and most malignant wild beasts had nothing on you (I believe that is the correct phrase) in the matter of atrocity, I do not think we should have settled this matter of the tie (or should I say neckwear) with the philosophic calm which has characterized our interview up to this point.’ I regret to say that this person was so lost to all sense of patriotism as to agree with me.”
  4. “But who are these men of good will? Only those who happen to agree with us for the moment.”
  5. “We can justify the existence of President Wilson in keeping us out of war, making the world safe for democracy, and all these nice things which he does so splendidly; and we can also justify the existence of the monster, tyrant, assassin and religious maniac invented by the New York papers and labeled William.”