Quotation
Last reviewed:
“War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.”
Erasmus · Christian humanism · Renaissance · 1517
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the proverb, in Erasmus's hands, as an anti-war argument from experience: people who praise war are typically people who will not fight it, and the sweetness is ignorance. He develops the saying at length against Christian princes who treat war as policy. A rival reading hears a claim that veterans always oppose war, which experience does not show and which he does not need. The sentence is not his invention; It is a Greek proverb he quotes, in the Complaint of Peace and in the Adagia.
Did Erasmus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Erasmus uses the classical proverb dulce bellum inexpertis, war is sweet to the inexperienced, in The Complaint of Peace and in the Adagia. The thought is a Greek saying, not original to him. This English is a translation of a proverb he is quoting.
Where it comes from
The Complaint of Peace (1517)
Approximate date: 1517.
How to use it
A comment thread in a British newspaper that finds a foreign war stirring, written by people who will not leave their kitchens, is the audience the proverb names. Erasmus would add the princes and the preachers. The proverb does not make every soldier a sage, and it does not make every critic of a war correct about the politics; It makes the sweetness suspect when the speaker is safe.
A mindset reading
Quoting the line as if Erasmus had coined a piece of original psychology gives him credit that belongs to a much older saying. His work is the use: a Christian humanist turning a classical sentence against European wars. A rival use treats the proverb as a ban on every forceful defence; The Complaint of Peace is passionate and not a full theory of justice in war; The badge should say borrowed.
Understand the philosophy
The key term is the proverb itself, dulce bellum inexpertis, sweet is war to those without experience of it. Erasmus collects it in the Adagia and writes it into The Complaint of Peace of 1517, where Peace speaks against Christendom's wars. The originality is the commentary and the application, not the sentence. This English translates the proverb and should be cited as his use of a Greek saying.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the proverb, in Erasmus's hands, as an anti-war argument from experience: people who praise war are typically people who will not fight it, and the sweetness is ignorance. He develops the saying at length against Christian princes who treat war as policy. A rival reading hears a claim that veterans always oppose war, which experience does not show and which he does not need. The sentence is not his invention; It is a Greek proverb he quotes, in the Complaint of Peace and in the Adagia.
Did Erasmus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Erasmus uses the classical proverb dulce bellum inexpertis, war is sweet to the inexperienced, in The Complaint of Peace and in the Adagia. The thought is a Greek saying, not original to him. This English is a translation of a proverb he is quoting.
Which work is it in?
The Complaint of Peace (1517) Approximate date: 1517.