Man,' wrote Oswald Spengler, 'is a beast of prey.' That is simply a fact of nature. And another such fact is this: that throughout the animal kingdom beasts of prey, when compared with their vegetarian victims, are in general not only the more powerful but also the more intelligent. Heraclitus declared war to be the creator of all great things; and in the words again of Spengler, 'The one who lacks courage to be a hammer comes off in the role of the anvil.

• nature
• war
• courage
• heraclitus