The end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered.

-Alexander the Great
Quoted in Plutarch  Alexander, 40.2.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter nosesthanourselves, isnot a pretty thing when you look into it too much.What redeems it is an idea only.

-Korzeniowski
  Heart of Darkness, pt.1 (first published in Blackwood's Magazine, collected inYouth:  A Narrative, and Two Other Stories, 1902).

Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! Confusion on thy banners wait, Tho'fanned by Conquest's crimson wing They mock the air with idle state.

-Gray,Thomas
  The Bard.  A Pindaric Ode, l.1^4.

But the adventure, the conquest of an unknown country, thestruggle against theimpossible, all have a fascination which draws me with an irresistible force.

-Hedin, Sven Anders
  My Life as an Explorer.

La visio¤  n de una Ame¤  rica deslatinizada por propia voluntad, sin la extorsio¤  n de la conquista, y regenerada luego a imagen y semejanza del arquetipo del Norte, flota ya sobre los suen‹  os de muchos sinceros interesados por nuestro porvenir† Tenemos nuestra nordoman|¤a. Es necesario oponerle los l|¤mites que la razo¤  n y el sentimiento sen‹  alan. The vision of an America de-Latinized of its own will, without threat of conquest, and reconstituted in the image and likeness of the North, now looms in the nightmares of many who are genuinely concerned about our future† We have our USA-mania. It must be limited by the boundaries our reason and sentiment jointly dictate.

-Rodo¤  ,Jose¤   Enrique
  Ariel (translated1922), pt.5.

   Human rights, national integrity, and opportunity as against material interests†are the issues that we now must face. I take this occasion to say that the United States will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.

-Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow
  Speech, Alabama, 27 Oct.