Sin duda la cercan|¤a de la muerte y la fraternidad de las armas producen, en todos los tiempos y en todos los pa|¤ses, una atmo¤  sfera propicia a lo extraordinario, a todo aquello que sobrepasa la condicio¤  n humana y rompe el c|¤rculo de soledad que rodea a cada hombre. No doubt the nearness of death and the brotherhood of men-at-wars, at whatever time and in whatever country, always produce an atmosphere favorable to the extraordinary, to all that rises above the human condition and breaks the circle of solitude that surrounds each one of us.

-Paz, Octavio
  El laberinto de la soledad, pt.1 (translated asThe Labyrinth of Solitude,1961).

I went out to Charing Cross to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn and quarteredöwhich was done thereöhe looking as cheerfully as any man could do in that condition† Thus it was my chance to see the King beheaded at Whitehall and to see the first blood shed in revenge for the blood of the King at Charing Cross.

-Pepys, Samuel
  Diary entry,13 Oct.

Strange to say what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition.

-Pepys, Samuel
  Diary entry, 25 Dec.

War is a condition of progress; the whip-cut that prevents a country from going to sleep and forces satisfied mediocrity to shake off its apathy.

-Renan, (Joseph) Ernest
La Re¤  forme intellectuelle et morale.

The principle which prompts to save is the desire of bettering our conditionöa desire which†comes with us from the womb and never leaves us till we go into the grave.

-Smith, Adam
  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.2, ch.3.

Civilisation is a movement and not a condition; a voyage and not a harbour.

-Toynbee, Arnold Joseph
Quoted in Reader's Digest, Oct1958.