War & Peace Quote by Cicero

War, for Cicero, is only tolerable when it can be framed as housekeeping: a brutal act justified by the promise that it ends brutality. The line sounds like moral restraint, but it’s also a lawyerly maneuver from Rome’s great advocate-politician. He doesn’t condemn war outright; he narrows its permissible story to one narrative the Roman state could always claim to inhabit: defense.

The phrasing is doing quiet rhetorical work. “Only excuse” admits war is inherently suspicious, something that requires pleading, not celebrating. “May live in peace unharmed” pushes the goal past victory or glory into a supposedly neutral baseline of safety. That word “may” matters: it’s permission, not guarantee, an ethical wager that future tranquility can redeem present violence. Cicero leaves room for uncertainty while still granting leaders a usable standard.

Subtextually, it’s a warning shot at opportunism. If peace and protection are the sole alibi, then conquest, revenge, profit, and prestige are exposed as indecent motives dressed up as policy. Yet the quote also reveals how easily “defense” can become a solvent that dissolves scrutiny. If any threat can be argued as existential, nearly any war can be relabeled preventative self-preservation.

Context sharpens the tension. Cicero lived through the Republic’s collapse, when “emergency” became routine and political violence metastasized into civil war. His ideal of a just war reads less like pacifism than like a last attempt to impose constitutional etiquette on a state addicted to force: fight only so you can stop fighting, and never confuse domination for security.