beliefs are beliefs

"All this war, this talk of nationality, to me is false. I feel no nationality, not fundamentally. I feel no passion for my own land, nor my own house, nor my own furniture, nor my own money. Therefore I won´t pretend any. Neither will I take part  in the scrimmage, to help my neighbour. It is his affair to go in or to stay out, as he wishes. If they had compelled me to go in, I should have died. I am sure. One is too raw, one fights too hard already, for the real integrity of one´s being. That last straw of compulsion would have been too much, I think.
Christianity is based on the love of self, the love of property, one degree removed. Why should I care for my neighbour´s property, or my neighbour´s life, if I do not care for my own? If the truth of my spirit is all that matters to me, in the last issue, then on behalf of my neighbour, all I care for is the truth of his spirit. And if his truth is his love of property, I refuse to stand by him, whether he be a poor man robbed of his cottage, his wife and children, or a rich man robbed of his merchandise. I have nothing to do with him, in that wise, and I don´t care whether he keep or lose his throat, on behalf of his property.  Property, and power -which is the same- is not the criterion. The criterion is the truth of my own intrinsic desire, clear of ulterior contamination."

Letters - D.H.Lawrence