How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph.)
Quote #4
True warfare is what happens between bands of the same species. Out of the hundreds of thousands of species, I can only think of seven which are belligerent. Even Man has a few varieties like the Esquimaux and the Gypsies and the Lapps and certain Nomads in Arabia, who do not do it, because they do not claim boundaries. True warfare is rarer in Nature than cannibalism. (S.21.131)
Extremely Significant Point Alert! This gets right at the heart of White's beef with war: he thinks it's largely unnatural, and that (maybe) humans can be cured of their drive toward it.
Quote #5
"Personally," said the Wart, "I should have liked to go to war, if I could have been made a knight. I should have liked the banners and the trumpets, the flashing armour and the glorious charges. And oh, I should have liked to do great deeds, and be brave, and conquer my own fears. Don't you have courage in warfare, Badger, and endurance, and comrades whom you love?" (S.21.132)
The wise badger's silence says it all. He merely changes the subject, because he can see that this idea of glory is too ingrained in Wart, and will have to be unlearned.
Quote #6
"But look at the country. Look at the barns burnt, and dead men's legs sticking out of ponds, and horses with swelled bellies by the roadside, and mills falling down, and money buried, and nobody daring to walk abroad with gold or ornaments on their clothes. That is chivalry nowadays. That is the Uther Pendragon touch. And then you talk about a battle being fun!" (Q.2.72).
Merlyn is here talking to Arthur, and is trying to disabuse the young King of the notion that battle is fun. Plus, just look at all the other horrible violent things that happen during wartime. Dulce et decorum est, and all that...