Waldersee in one of his dispatches to the Kaiser from China, c. 1900
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The amount of damage done to the country down to date by ravage and plunder will never be calculable, but it must be immense. It is only to be regretted that those who are most responsible for the war will be the ones least affected by it. Unfortunately, the looting has not failed to be attended by other excesses: outrages on women, barbarities of all descriptions, murder, wanton acts of incendiarism, etc.

— Alfred von Waldersee

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The amount of damage done to the country down to date by ravage and plunder will never be calculable, but it must be immense. It is only to be regretted that those who are most responsible for the war will be the ones least affected by it. Unfortunately, the looting has not failed to be attended by other excesses: outrages on women, barbarities of all descriptions, murder, wanton acts of incendiarism, etc." in the context of "Waldersee in one of his dispatches to the Kaiser from China, c. 1900" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Alfred von Waldersee" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Alfred von Waldersee

About Alfred von Waldersee

Alfred Ludwig Heinrich Karl Graf von Waldersee (8 April 1832 – 5 March 1904) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) who became Chief of the Imperial German General Staff.