"As no national interest would justify inflicting genocide on the victim and suicide on the aggressor, a prevalent misconception is that nuclear war will never be fought. But the realities of our age compel an opposite assessment. In no previous epoch were adversaries so continuously and totally mobilized for instant war. It is a statistical certainly that hair-trigger readiness cannot endure as a permanent condition. Furthermore, the unrelenting growth in nuclear arsenals, the increasing accuracy of missiles, and the continuing computerization of response systems all promote instabilities which court nuclear war by technical malfunction; by miscalculation, human aberration or criminal act."
React to this quote
More by Bernard Lown
See allResonant Thoughts
"When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you to trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about …"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Don’t get feminist on me! Look, I’m not a feminist, 'cause I'm a man. I'm not qualified. I can't be a femin…"
— Dylan Moran"Let’s not give up on faith and the human spirit in accomplishing the impossible – world peace, universal ri…"
— Newton Lee"All of them perceived that American Democracy did not imply any equality of wealth, but did demand a wholes…"
— Sinclair Lewis"The first is that he must be well-ordered from without in all virtues and unhindered within, just as empty …"
— John Ruysbroeck"The Plankton character was only supposed to be in one or two episodes, but I was a writer on the show and I…"
— Mr. Lawrence"Many observers have exposed the democracy deficits of the international and domestic order; identified thre…"
— Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Related Thinkers
Related Topics
Deep Dives
- Larry Wall on justice
- Linus Torvalds on justice
- Vitruvius on justice
- Erik Naggum on justice
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on knowledge
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on leadership
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on books
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on creativity
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on education
- N. R. Narayana Murthy on friendship
- knowledge & Beauty
- knowledge & Change


