who said be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about
Ian Maclaren It is thought that Maclaren was the original source of the quotation “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle,” now widely misattributed to Plato or Philo of Alexandria. The oldest known instance of this quotation is in the 1897 Christmas edition of The British Weekly, penned by Maclaren: “Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.”[6]
The Man He Killed The poem was written at the time of the second Boer War (1899-1902). The poem considers the irrational situation of war, and diminishing patriotic motives of the soldiers that meet one another on the battlefield. By giving his readers the perspective of an ordinary manâ€™s life and experience, Hardy asked broader questions about the purpose of war in general. Hardy's own class origins were visible in this poem; where his own parents were from the middle and lower class, so that even as a rich and successful novelist, he could put himself in the perspective of ordinary people. Such as where the man in poem ponders about the motives of war. Also during this time Hardy and his wife, Emma, did not approve of the South African War like many other liberals- it gave Hardy doubts about the British Empire. To him, it seemed like the Boers were only defending their homes and land against the English. Overall, it made him question the purpose of killing others for the sake of war.[5]