"The question whether the long effort to put an end to war can succeed without another major convulsion challenges not only our minds but our sense of responsibility"
About this Quote
The knife in the sentence is “without another major convulsion.” Balch is speaking from a world that had already watched modern war industrialize suffering. The line carries the dread that catastrophe is the default engine of reform: nations change only after they’re broken. She’s challenging that fatalism. Can humans learn prophylactically, or do we require trauma to recalibrate? The subtext is an indictment of political complacency and public appetite for dramatic turning points. If peace arrives only after “convulsion,” then it’s less a triumph of reason than a byproduct of ruin.
As an educator and internationalist (and later a Nobel Peace Prize laureate), Balch’s context is early 20th-century pacifism wrestling with realism: the rise of militarism, the fragility of leagues and conferences, the temptation to treat war as inevitable. Her sentence is designed to shame inevitability without naivete. It asks readers to feel implicated: if preventing war is “long,” then citizens, not just statesmen, are on the hook for patience, civic pressure, and the unglamorous work of cooperation before the next crisis makes the choice for them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Balch, Emily Greene. (2026, January 17). The question whether the long effort to put an end to war can succeed without another major convulsion challenges not only our minds but our sense of responsibility. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-whether-the-long-effort-to-put-an-74346/
Chicago Style
Balch, Emily Greene. "The question whether the long effort to put an end to war can succeed without another major convulsion challenges not only our minds but our sense of responsibility." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-whether-the-long-effort-to-put-an-74346/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The question whether the long effort to put an end to war can succeed without another major convulsion challenges not only our minds but our sense of responsibility." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-whether-the-long-effort-to-put-an-74346/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
