There were never any humane wars but the religious wars.

For these men were fighting for something that claimed, at least, to be the happiness of a man, the virtue of a man.
A Crusader thought, at least, that Islam hurt the soul of every man, king or tinker, that it could really capture.

I think Buck and Barker and these rich vultures hurt the soul of every man, hurt every inch of the ground, hurt every brick of the houses, that they can really capture.

Do you think I have no right to fight for Notting Hill, you whose English Government has so often fought for tomfooleries?
If, as your rich friends say, there are no gods, and the skies are dark above us, what should a man fight for, but the place where he had the Eden of childhood and the short heaven of first love?
If no temples and no scriptures are sacred, what is sacred if a man's own youth is not sacred ?" The King walked a little restlessly up and down the dais.
"It is hard," he said, biting his lips, "to assent to a view so desperate--so responsible...." As he spoke, the door of the audience chamber fell ajar, and through the aperture came, like the sudden chatter of a bird, the high, nasal, but well-bred voice of Barker.
"I said to him quite plainly--the public interests--" Auberon turned on Wayne with violence.
"What the devil is all this?
What am I saying?
What are you saying?
Have you hypnotised me?
Curse your uncanny blue eyes! Let me go.

Give me back my sense of humour.