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 APPEASEMENT . . . see: "WAR & PEACE" for related links The one sure way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured. --attributed to Konrad Adenauer (1876—1967) German statesman. Those who will not reason Perish in the act: Those who will not act Perish for that reason. --W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973) English-born poet and man of letters. "Shorts" [1974] Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian. --Heywood Broun (1888—1939) American journalist; father of Heywood Hale Broun. Quoted in Lin Yutang _The Wisdom of China and India_ [1942]. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. --Edmund Burke (1729—1797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents_ [1770] - There are two ways of losing a war. One is to be defeated in the field. The other is to lose the war before it begins. We have indicated this peril for months past. It is now obvious. It has to be admitted. Why is so plain a peril — plainly revealed in Hitler's book — why, we ask, is it only now recognised by our rulers? Simply because, even if they have read Hitler (which is still doubtful) they have not believed what he has said in Mein Kampf. Not believing him, not knowing the sort of lucid lunatic with whom they have had to deal, they have believed it possible to disarm him by smiles, handshakes, pacts and scraps of paper. --"Cassandra" [William Connor] (1909—1967) British journalist. "The Daily Mirror" [21 March 1939] - My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds. --Neville Chamberlain (1869—1940) British Conservative politician, Prime Minister [1937—1940]. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 825. Cohan & Major explain: Speaking to cheering crowds from a first-floor window of 10 Downing Street after his return from Munich, 1 Oct. 1938. The sense of relief was shared in France, where a crowd of half a million turned out to welcome Daladier back from Germany. The phrase 'peace for our time' seems to be based on words in the Order of Morning Prayer in the Anglican liturgy: 'Give peace in our time, 0 Lord.' We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analysing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will. --Neville Chamberlain (1869—1940) British Conservative politician, Prime Minister [1937—1940]. Speech, 6 October 1938, to the House of Commons. It was delivered one week after Chamberlain’s return from the Munich Conference. - - An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last. --Winston Churchill (1874—1965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955]. Referring to Prime Minister Chamberlain and the Munich Pact, House of Commons speech [2 October 1938]. If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. --Winston Churchill (1874—1965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955]. _The Second World War_, vol I "The Gathering Storm" [1948] - Well, there we are. I see there is nothing to be done. --Pierre-Étienne Flandin (1889—1958) French foreign minister. On the German re-militarization of the Rhineland, March 1936. In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 818. Cohan & Major point out: General Gamelin, the French army commander-in-chief, exaggerated the size of the German army and warned that French military action in response to the occupation would lead to general mobilization. Thus, in the words of a modern British historian 'Hitler got away with his first and most desperate gamble'. Do the people of the world not yet realize that by fighting on until the bitter end I am not only performing my sacred duty to my people, but standing guard in the last citadel of collective security? Are they too blind to see that I have my responsibilities to the whole of humanity to face? I must still hold on until my tardy allies appear. And if they never come, then I say prophetically and without bitterness: The West will perish. --Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (1892—1975) Emperor of Ethiopia [1930—1974]. In 1935. It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. --Dag Hammarskjöld (1905—1961) Swedish diplomat; served as the Secretary General of the U.N. [1953-1961]. In Wilder Foote (ed.), _Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld_ [1962] (Wikiquote). - It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: — 'Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you. We will therefore pay you cash to go away.' And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane. It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation, For fear they should succumb and go astray; So when you are requested to pay up or be molested, You will find it better policy to say: — 'We never pay any one Dane-geld, No matter how trifling the cost; For the end of that game is oppression and shame, And the nation that plays it is lost!' --Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) English writer and poet. _School History_ "Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016)" [1911] Coauthored with C. Fletcher. - - It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race. No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastations. A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. [. . . ] We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we also must look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction. --Charles Lindbergh (1902—1974) American aviator. Speech in Des Moines, Iowa [1941]. - If you have sacrificed my nation to save the peace of the world, I will be the first to applaud you. But if not, gentlemen, God help your souls. --Jan Masaryk (1886—1948) Czech statesman and diplomat. In Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_, p. 206 [1998]. Neville Chamberlain's politics of appeasement were, as far as we can judge, inspired by good motives; he was probably less motivated by considerations of personal power than were many other British prime ministers, and he sought to preserve peace and to assure the happiness of all concerned. Yet his policies helped to make the Second World War inevitable, and to bring untold miseries to millions of men. Sir Winston Churchill's motives, on the other hand, were much less universal in scope and much more narrowly directed toward personal and national power, yet the foreign policies that sprang from these inferior motives were certainly superior in moral and political quality to those pursued by his predecessor. --Hans J. Morgenthau (1904—1980) German-born American pioneer in the field of international relations theory. _Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace_ Fifth Edition, Revised, [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978] You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil. --John Ruskin (1819—1900) English art and social critic. _The Two Paths_, lecture 5 [1859] They all believe that today or tomorrow Hitler will start the war, but I'm not so sure. What good would a war do him, since whatever he wants they bring him on a silver platter? The Americans and the whole democratic world have lost the most valuable possession — character. There's a form of tolerance that's worse than syphilis, worse than murder, worse than madness. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991) Polish-American novelist who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature. _Shosha_, ch. 14 [1978] ----- implacable [im-PLAK-uh-bull], adjective: Not to be appeased; incapable of being pacified Ex.: For it is my office to prosecute the guilty with implacable zeal. --Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (translated by Liz Heron) end page | ABILITY - ABUSE | ACADEMY AWARDS - ACCUSATION | ACHIEVEMENT - ACQUAINTANCE | ACTION/S | ACTORS / ACTING | ACTUARIES - ADVERSARIES | ADVERSITY - ADVERTISING | ADVICE | AFFAIRS - AFGHANISTAN | AGE | AGNOSTICS - AIRPLANES | ALCOHOL | ALIBI - AMBITION | AMERICA PAGE 1 (A-M) | AMERICA PAGE 2 (N-Z) | AMERICANS | AMERICAN INDIANS | AMERICAN REVOLUTION | AMUSEMENT - ANCESTORS | ANGER | ANIMAL RIGHTS - ANIMALS | ANIMOSITIES - APATHY | APOLOGY & APPEARANCE | APPEASEMENT | APPLAUSE - APRIL | ARCHAEOLOGISTS - ARCHITECTURE | ARGUMENT | ARISTOCRACY - ART | ASHAMED - ASTROLOGY | ATHEISM | ATOM BOMB - ATTRACTION | AUSTRALIA | AUTHORITY - AUTOMOBILES | AUTUMN - AWARENESS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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