…They have thought that misery and cruelty and degradation were due to tyrants or priests or capitalists or Germans, and that if these sources of evil where overthrown there would be a general change of heart and we would all live happy ever after. Holding these beliefs, they have been willing to wage a ”war to end war”. Comparatively fortunate were those who suffered defeat or death; those who had the misfortune to emerge victorious were reduced to cynicism and despair by the failure of their glowing hopes.

—bertrand russell