Time Of Disturbance

The best is, in war or faction or ordinary vindictive
     life, not to take sides.
Leave it for children, and the emotional rabble of the
     streets, to back their horse or support a brawler.

But if you are forced into it: remember that good and
     evil are as common as air, and like air shared
By the panting belligerents; the moral indignation that
     hoarsens orators is mostly a fool.

Hold your nose and compromise; keep a cold mind. Fight,
     if needs must; hate no one. Do as God does,
Or the tragic poets: they crush their man without hating
     him, their Lear or Hitler, and often save without
     love.

As for these quarrels, they are like the moon, recurrent
     and fantastic. They have their beauty but night's
     is better.
It is better to be silent than make a noise. It is better
     to strike dead than strike often. It is better not
     to strike.

Submitted by Holt