Those who foresee the future and recognize it as tragic are often seized by a madness which forces them to commit the very acts which made it certain that what they dread shall happen.

Dame Rebecca West

Before a war, military science seems a real science, like astronomy. After a war it seems more like astrology.

Dame Rebecca West

If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: "It seemed a good idea at the time."

Dame Rebecca West