---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Well, we are making war for civilization…"
description: "\"“Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very well, we are. Therefore, we eat in a civilized way.”\" — Emily Post"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png"
---

#  Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very…

![“Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very well, we are. Therefore, we eat in a civilized way.” quote by Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png)

> ““Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very well, we are. Therefore, we eat in a civilized way.””

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

The speaker paradoxically frames war as a civilizing force, implying that even conflict follows societal norms of civility.

**In simple terms:** War is presented as a refined, orderly activity.

Key Takeaway

Recognize the irony of applying etiquette to violence.

Themes

war civilization irony

Mood

critical analytical

Type

philosophical satirical

When to use this quote

- military training
- diplomatic negotiations
- media analysis

Key Concepts

political theory social norms ethics conflict studies

Questions to Reflect On

- Can true civility exist within violent conflict?
- What are the moral implications of “civilized” war?

A Different Perspective

The statement trivializes the brutality of war.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/)

## Related quotes

> [Business is always looking to avoid the toughest norms. But some do it in a civilized way, while others push it using uncivilized, brazen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dmitry-medvedev/business-is-always-looking-to-avoid-the-toughest-norms-but-some-do-it/)

[Dmitry Medvedev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dmitry-medvedev/)

> [Democracy is the only civilized way to govern a country.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ricardo-salinas-pliego/democracy-is-the-only-civilized-way-to-govern-a-country/)

[Ricardo Salinas Pliego](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ricardo-salinas-pliego/)

> [“The flush toilet, more than any single invention, has 'civilized' us in a way that religion and law could never accomplish.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lynch/the-flush-toilet-more-than-any-single-invention-has-civilized-us-in-a/)

[Thomas Lynch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lynch/)

> [“Battle is for an army to win or lose; war is for civilization to win or lose.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-c-esslemont/battle-is-for-an-army-to-win-or-lose-war-is-for-civilization-to-win/)

[Ian C. Esslemont](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-c-esslemont/)

> [Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-flexner/probably-no-nation-is-rich-enough-to-pay-for-both-war-and/)

[Abraham Flexner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-flexner/)

> [“Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-flexner/nations-have-recently-been-led-to-borrow-billions-for-war-no-nation/)

[Abraham Flexner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-flexner/)

> [This war in Vietnam is, I believe, a war for civilization. Certainly it is not a war of our seeking. It is a war…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-spellman/this-war-in-vietnam-is-i-believe-a-war-for-civilization-certainly-it/)

Francis Spellman

> [We are constantly trying to cope with what our fathers or our grandfathers did. I wrote the book 'Great War of Civilization,' and my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-fisk/we-are-constantly-trying-to-cope-with-what-our-fathers-or-our/)

[Robert Fisk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-fisk/)

> [What you people who weren't yet born can never know is what it meant to sleep in cities under silent falls of snow when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-findley/what-you-people-who-weren-t-yet-born-can-never-know-is-what-it-meant/)

[Timothy Findley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-findley/)

> [If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ludwig-von-mises/if-men-do-not-now-succeed-in-abolishing-war-civilization-and-mankind/)

[Ludwig von Mises](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ludwig-von-mises/)

> [The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sean-o-casey/the-military-mind-is-indeed-a-menace-old-fashioned-futurity-that-sees/)

[Sean O'Casey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sean-o-casey/)

> [War is not civilized.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/talib-kweli/war-is-not-civilized/)

[Talib Kweli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/talib-kweli/)

> [Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-hemingway/wine-is-one-of-the-most-civilized-things-in-the-world-and-one-of-the/)

[Ernest Hemingway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-hemingway/)

> [Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it; what custom hath civilized is become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-quarles/be-neither-too-early-in-the-fashion-nor-too-long-out-of-it-nor-too/)

[Francis Quarles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-quarles/)

> [ That country \[Carthage\] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-gibbon/that-country-carthage-was-rapidly-sinking-into-the-state-of-barbarism/)

[Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-gibbon/)

## More by Emily Post

> [Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/manners-are-a-sensitive-awareness-of-the-feelings-of-others/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/manners-are-a-sensitive-awareness-of-the-feelings-of-others-if-you/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/an-overdose-of-praise-is-like-10-lumps-of-sugar-in-coffee-only-a-very/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [“Persons under the shock of genuine affliction are not only upset mentally but are all unbalanced physically. No matter how calm and controlled they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/persons-under-the-shock-of-genuine-affliction-are-not-only-upset/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of no one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/a-little-praise-is-not-only-merest-justice-but-is-beyond-the-purse-of/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not only good manners, but equally good business.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/to-make-a-pleasant-and-friendly-impression-is-not-only-good-manners/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/manners-are-made-up-of-trivialities-of-deportment-which-can-be-easily/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately; the great thing is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/training-a-child-is-exactly-like-training-a-puppy-a-little-heedless/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [One very great annoyance in open air gatherings is cigar smoke when blown directly in one's face or worse yet the smoke from a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/one-very-great-annoyance-in-open-air-gatherings-is-cigar-smoke-when/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Excepting a religious ceremonial, there is no occasion where greater dignity of manner is required of ladies and gentlemen both, than in occupying a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/excepting-a-religious-ceremonial-there-is-no-occasion-where-greater/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [“The most advertised commodity is not always intrinsically the best; but is sometimes merely the product of a company, with plenty of money to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/the-most-advertised-commodity-is-not-always-intrinsically-the-best/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [She must not swing her arms as though they were dangling ropes; she must not switch herself this way and that; she must not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/she-must-not-swing-her-arms-as-though-they-were-dangling-ropes-she/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/to-be-a-good-sportsman-one-must-be-a-stoic-and-never-show-rancor-in/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Houses without personality are a series of walled enclosures with furniture standing around in them. Other houses are filled with things of little intrinsic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/houses-without-personality-are-a-series-of-walled-enclosures-with/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

> [Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/manners-are-made-up-of-trivialities-of-deportment-which-can-be-easily-2/)

[Emily Post](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

[Explore all 71 Emily Post quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/)

## More Civilized quotes

> [ That country \[Carthage\] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-gibbon/that-country-carthage-was-rapidly-sinking-into-the-state-of-barbarism/)

[Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-gibbon/)

> [Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it; what custom hath civilized is become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-quarles/be-neither-too-early-in-the-fashion-nor-too-long-out-of-it-nor-too/)

[Francis Quarles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-quarles/)

> [Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-hemingway/wine-is-one-of-the-most-civilized-things-in-the-world-and-one-of-the/)

[Ernest Hemingway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-hemingway/)

> [Civilized nations are ones that simply can't endure wrongs or injustice except at home](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-anderson/civilized-nations-are-ones-that-simply-can-t-endure-wrongs-or/)

Joseph Anderson

> [Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-gropius/our-guiding-principle-was-that-design-is-neither-an-intellectual-nor/)

[Walter Gropius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-gropius/)

> [War is not civilized.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/talib-kweli/war-is-not-civilized/)

[Talib Kweli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/talib-kweli/)

> [For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-an-absurdity-to-call-a-country-civilized-in-which-a-decent/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-roosevelt/no-people-is-wholly-civilized-where-a-distinction-is-drawn-between/)

[Theodore Roosevelt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-roosevelt/)

> [Mine was, as it were, the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields; as some states are civilized, and others half-civilized, and others savage…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/mine-was-as-it-were-the-connecting-link-between-wild-and-cultivated/)

[Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/)

> [The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sean-o-casey/the-military-mind-is-indeed-a-menace-old-fashioned-futurity-that-sees/)

[Sean O'Casey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sean-o-casey/)

> [As long as there are prisons, police, armies, navies; we are not civilized. When the Earth joins together and uses the Earth intelligently, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacque-fresco/as-long-as-there-are-prisons-police-armies-navies-we-are-not/)

[Jacque Fresco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacque-fresco/)

> [We're all intrigued, in our civilized world that we live in, and curious about how we would get on, on an undiscovered island that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-hiddleston/we-re-all-intrigued-in-our-civilized-world-that-we-live-in-and/)

[Tom Hiddleston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-hiddleston/)

> [When passions and appetites are stronger than the intellect, men are savages; when the intellect governs the passions, when the passions are servants, men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/when-passions-and-appetites-are-stronger-than-the-intellect-men-are/)

[Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/)

> [The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gore-vidal/the-malady-of-civilized-man-is-his-knowledge-of-death-the-good-artist/)

[Gore Vidal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gore-vidal/)

> [Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-von-clausewitz/savage-peoples-are-ruled-by-passion-civilized-peoples-by-the-mind/)

[Carl von Clausewitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-von-clausewitz/)

Browse all 1,043 Civilized quotes

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "“Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very well, we are. Therefore, we eat in a civilized way.”",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Emily Post"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization-are-we-not-very-well-we-are/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Civilized"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization-are-we-not-very-well-we-are/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b9/emily-post-9638_civilized_well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization_1779008.png",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“Well, we are making war for civilization, are we not? Very well, we are. Therefore, we eat in a civilized way.” — Emily Post",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Emily Post",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-post/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "“Well, we are making war for...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization-are-we-not-very-well-we-are/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-post/well-we-are-making-war-for-civilization-are-we-not-very-well-we-are/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
