--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro…" description: "\"The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.\" — Wilfred Owen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png" --- # The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. ![“The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” quote by Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png) > “The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. War glorification is a lie; the reality is horrific. **In simple terms:** War is not glorious. Key Takeaway Question patriotic myths. Themes war truth propaganda Mood somber critical Type poetic historical When to use this quote - military recruitment - education - memorial services - media coverage Key Concepts illusion human cost anti‑war Questions to Reflect On - Why do societies glorify war? - What alternatives to glorification exist? 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It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francine-mathews/dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori-he-said-solemnly-it-is-sweet-and/) [Francine Mathews](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francine-mathews/) > [Another soldier has been killed. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-c-brown/another-soldier-has-been-killed-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori/) [William C. Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-c-brown/) > [If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/if-in-some-smothering-dreams-you-too-could-pace-behind-the-wagon-that/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency should be quietly hanged as a matter of public sanitation and decorum.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/unsuccessful-candidates-for-the-presidency-should-be-quietly-hanged/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/liberty-was-a-two-headed-boon-there-was-first-the-liberty-of-the/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [The middle of 'America's Women' is about the Civil War, and how women, black and white, confronted slavery and abolition. As in every other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gail-collins/the-middle-of-america-s-women-is-about-the-civil-war-and-how-women/) [Gail Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gail-collins/) > [As for the decorum at the time of a campaign, one must be mindful that he is a samurai. A person who loves beautification…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kato-kiyomasa/as-for-the-decorum-at-the-time-of-a-campaign-one-must-be-mindful-that/) [Kato Kiyomasa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kato-kiyomasa/) > [The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who on the grounds of decorum and morality avoids the game of love. He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-most-disgusting-cad-in-the-world-is-the-man-who-on-the-grounds-of/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [“The poster child for decorum was actually being sexually suggestive.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georgina-guthrie/the-poster-child-for-decorum-was-actually-being-sexually-suggestive/) [Georgina Guthrie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georgina-guthrie/) > [Any girl that's in a professional setting has to have a certain amount of decorum, but there's always a different story going on, when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stana-katic/any-girl-that-s-in-a-professional-setting-has-to-have-a-certain/) [Stana Katic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stana-katic/) > [A man who understands decorum and the courtesies is a great treasure; I hope to train and send into society as many such men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mas-oyama/a-man-who-understands-decorum-and-the-courtesies-is-a-great-treasure/) [Mas Oyama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mas-oyama/) > [It is important that the decorum and dignity of the House is upheld at all times. The image of Parliament in the public mind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pratibha-patil/it-is-important-that-the-decorum-and-dignity-of-the-house-is-upheld/) [Pratibha Patil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pratibha-patil/) > [Drinking can not be sacramentalised except in religions which set no store on decorum. The worship of Dionysos or the Celtic god of beer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/drinking-can-not-be-sacramentalised-except-in-religions-which-set-no/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) ## More by Wilfred Owen > [Was it for this the clay grew tall?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/was-it-for-this-the-clay-grew-tall/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [The war effects me less than it ought. I can do no service to anybody by agitating for news or making dole over the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-war-effects-me-less-than-it-ought-i-can-do-no-service-to-anybody/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Escape? There is one unwatched way: your eyes. O Beauty! Keep me good that secret gate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/escape-there-is-one-unwatched-way-your-eyes-o-beauty-keep-me-good/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/and-by-his-smile-i-knew-that-sullen-hall-by-his-dead-smile-i-knew-we/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Walking abroad, one is the admiration of all little boys, and meets an approving glance from every eye of elderly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/walking-abroad-one-is-the-admiration-of-all-little-boys-and-meets-an/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Those who, like the beasts, have no such Hope, pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/those-who-like-the-beasts-have-no-such-hope-pass-their-old-age/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [The English say, Yours Truly, and mean it. The Italians say, I kiss your feet, and mean, I kick your head.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-english-say-yours-truly-and-mean-it-the-italians-say-i-kiss-your/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/ambition-may-be-defined-as-the-willingness-to-receive-any-number-of/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [“These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished. Memory fingers in their hair of murders Multitudinous murders they once witnessed. Wading sloughs of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/these-are-men-whose-minds-the-dead-have-ravished-memory-fingers-in/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [Was it for this the clay grew tall? O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/was-it-for-this-the-clay-grew-tall-o-what-made-fatuous-sunbeams-toil/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [I was a boy when I first realized that the fullest life liveable was a Poet's](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/i-was-a-boy-when-i-first-realized-that-the-fullest-life-liveable-was/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [And some cease feeling Even themselves or for themselves. Dullness best solves The tease and doubt of shelling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/and-some-cease-feeling-even-themselves-or-for-themselves-dullness/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [“Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/sleep-mothered-them-and-left-the-twilight-sad/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [After all my years of playing soldiers, and then of reading History, I have almost a mania to be in the East, to see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/after-all-my-years-of-playing-soldiers-and-then-of-reading-history-i/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) > [My subject is war, and the pity of war.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/my-subject-is-war-and-the-pity-of-war/) [Wilfred Owen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) [Explore all 108 Wilfred Owen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/) ## More Decorum quotes > [Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - It is a sweet and becoming thing to die for ones country.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/horace/dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori-it-is-a-sweet-and-becoming-thing/) [Horace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/horace/) > [Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/liberty-was-a-two-headed-boon-there-was-first-the-liberty-of-the/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [Any girl that's in a professional setting has to have a certain amount of decorum, but there's always a different story going on, when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stana-katic/any-girl-that-s-in-a-professional-setting-has-to-have-a-certain/) [Stana Katic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stana-katic/) > [Unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency should be quietly hanged as a matter of public sanitation and decorum.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/unsuccessful-candidates-for-the-presidency-should-be-quietly-hanged/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [It is important that the decorum and dignity of the House is upheld at all times. The image of Parliament in the public mind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pratibha-patil/it-is-important-that-the-decorum-and-dignity-of-the-house-is-upheld/) [Pratibha Patil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pratibha-patil/) > [A man who understands decorum and the courtesies is a great treasure; I hope to train and send into society as many such men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mas-oyama/a-man-who-understands-decorum-and-the-courtesies-is-a-great-treasure/) [Mas Oyama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mas-oyama/) > [Drinking can not be sacramentalised except in religions which set no store on decorum. The worship of Dionysos or the Celtic god of beer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/drinking-can-not-be-sacramentalised-except-in-religions-which-set-no/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [“The poster child for decorum was actually being sexually suggestive.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georgina-guthrie/the-poster-child-for-decorum-was-actually-being-sexually-suggestive/) [Georgina Guthrie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georgina-guthrie/) > [The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who on the grounds of decorum and morality avoids the game of love. He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-most-disgusting-cad-in-the-world-is-the-man-who-on-the-grounds-of/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [As for the decorum at the time of a campaign, one must be mindful that he is a samurai. A person who loves beautification…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kato-kiyomasa/as-for-the-decorum-at-the-time-of-a-campaign-one-must-be-mindful-that/) [Kato Kiyomasa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kato-kiyomasa/) > [The middle of 'America's Women' is about the Civil War, and how women, black and white, confronted slavery and abolition. As in every other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gail-collins/the-middle-of-america-s-women-is-about-the-civil-war-and-how-women/) [Gail Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gail-collins/) > [To a high degree we are, through art and science, cultured. We are civilized - perhaps too much for our own good - in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/immanuel-kant/to-a-high-degree-we-are-through-art-and-science-cultured-we-are/) [Immanuel Kant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/immanuel-kant/) > [I do have a very conscious desire not to be academic. I'm antiacademic. I hate jargon. I hate that sort of pretension. I am…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-h-gass/i-do-have-a-very-conscious-desire-not-to-be-academic-i-m-antiacademic/) [William H. Gass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-h-gass/) > [One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-scott/one-hour-of-life-crowded-to-the-full-with-glorious-action-and-filled/) [Walter Scott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-scott/) > [“I had only to remember that centuries before, men fell in battle for the daughter of Troy, that passions carried greater weight than decorum.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brenna-yovanoff/i-had-only-to-remember-that-centuries-before-men-fell-in-battle-for/) [Brenna Yovanoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brenna-yovanoff/) [Browse all 88 Decorum quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/decorum/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wilfred Owen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Decorum" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/840/wilfred-owen-4642_decorum_the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-pat_2805967.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” — Wilfred Owen", "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": "Wilfred Owen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilfred-owen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilfred-owen/the-old-lie-dulce-et-decorum-est-pro-patria-mori/#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 } } ] } ```