An excerpt from an undated letter to Pound written from Beacon Hill School, found in Their Moods and Mine, page 41–2.

"I have never been a complete Pacifist. I think it justifiable to resist invasion; also to fight for certain principles, e.g. the English Civil War, the American ditto, and the War of Independence seem to me justifiable. But most wars, like bitter quarrels between individuals, involve folly on both sides. I tell my children that most wars (not all) come from both sides being silly (not wicked), just as the children are when they get into fights—only Governments have no grown-ups over them to tell them to be sensible. The appeal is to common sense, not to any abstract moral principle."