Erasmus

Not even a Turk could be so cruel as to wish the Christians greater misfortune than the suffering they inflict upon each other ... For a Christian prince it is more glorious to give up some piece of territory in order to preserve the state’s peace than to score brilliant and advantageous triumphs that are paid for with the happiness of so many ordinary people.

The humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam appeals to the monarchs during the Franco-Habsburg war at the beginning of the 1520s