So, I was reading "Mr American", George MacDonald Fraser's novel set in England in the run-up to World War One...

There was the sound of a newspaper being violently crumpled, a creaking of springs, and elderly arthritic gasps, and then a man emerged from behind the screen. He was extremely old and extremely large; Mr Franklin had an impression of stalwart height, and massive shoulders encased in a beautifully-cut frock coat of antique design, with a flower in its button-hole; above, reared a striking head of silver hair framing a lined, mottled face half-concealed by magnificent flowing white whiskers. It was the face of an aged, inebriated satyr, with a prominent, heavily-veined nose and dark, bloodshot eyes which glared past Mr Franklin at the conversing couple...

It is, of course, the Arch-Rotter of the Victorian Age himself, now safe in England in his old age and free to slip into a disgraceful old age, now too old to give a damn for his reputation or his fortune, and able to speak frankly about how he sees patriotism and war:-

A sudden, odd thought struck Mr Franklin, and it seemed doubly odd that it had only just occurred to him.

‘D’you think England will win this war?’

‘Ask them,’ said the General, and jerked his thumb at the window, grinning. Then he considered, the eyes narrowing in the flushed, ancient face. ‘Probably— yes, on balance, we ought to win. Germany can lick Russia, but not Britain and France together. But they’ll take a lot of beating, if it’s a fight to the finish. Yes, I’d say we were odds on to win — not that it matters all that much.’

Mr Franklin stared at him in astonishment. ‘You can’t mean that — it doesn’t make sense!’

Sir Harry turned to look at him, then glanced out the window again.

‘It isn’t important whether you win or lose,’ he said, ‘so long as you survive. So long as your people survive. And that’s the only good reason for fighting that anyone ever invented. The survival of your people and race and kind. That’s the only victory that matters.’

Highly recommended, if only for the passages involving Flash Harry.