Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote this arresting passage in his short story, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”:
[P]eople appeared who began devising ways of bringing men together again, so that each individual, without ceasing to prize himself above all others, might not thwart any other, so that all might live in harmony. Wars were waged for the sake of this notion. All the belligerents believed at the same time that science, wisdom, and the instinct of self-preservation would eventually compel men to unite in a rational and harmonious society, and therefore, to speed up the process in the meantime, ”the wise” strove with all expedition to destroy ”the unwise” and those who failed to grasp their idea, so they might not hinder its triumph.
Prometheus Unbound 