Randolph Bourne

"It is one of the more subtly tragic aspects of his death, a misfortune not only to a fecund mind that needed free utterance, but to a country which is nearly starved for thought, that he should in the…"

"It cannot be too firmly realized that war…is the chief function of States.  …  War cannot exist without a military establishment, and a military establishment cannot exist without a State organization…"

"War is the health of the State.  It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience …"

"Youth is the leaven that keeps all these questioning, testing attitudes fermenting in the world.  If it were not for this troublesome activity of youth, with its hatred of sophisms and glosses, its in…"

"Secondly, war has always been the occasion for a huge, catastrophic leap into statism, a leap that occurs during the war and lasts as a permanent legacy afterwards.  As the great libertarian Randolph …"

"The secret of life is then that this fine youthful spirit should never be lost.  Out of the turbulence of youth should come this fine precipitate—a sane, strong, aggressive spirit of daring and doing.…"

"The modern State is not the rational and intelligent product of modern men desiring to live harmoniously together with security of life, property, and opinion.  It is not an organization which has bee…"

"How shall I describe Youth, the time of contradictions and anomalies?  The fiercest radicalisms, the most dogged conservatisms, irrepressible gayety, bitter melancholy,—all these moods are equally par…"