To Hunt an'assault'on the mountain merely meant a concerted, military-style operation; whereas to Shipton 'assault'sounded more like a criminal offence.

-Cranfield, Ingrid
  Of the contrast in approach to the climbing of Mt Everest between Eric Shipton, originally appointed as leader of the1953 expedition, and John Hunt, who replaced him. In Expedition, vol.8, no.4,  Jul.

It would be hard to find a single instance of a direct assault by positive effort upon poverty, vice, and misery which has not either failed or, if it has not failed directly and entirely, has not entailed other evils greater than the one which it removed.

-Sumner,William Graham
  'Sociology', collected in War and Other Essays (1911).