Painterly two toy soldiers on scorched ground, one standing and one fallen, beneath a smoky sky.

Original artwork, not a still

Tipperary

George Santayana

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The sentence treats war as something the living have not finally escaped. Death marks an end to exposure to it, making the claim bleak rather than a promise of peace. The force lies in denying a lasting conclusion within life, not in describing an experience after death.

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