quotations about murder
Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.
JEAN ROSTAND
Thoughts of a Biologist
Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
W.H. AUDEN
The Dyer's Hand
If A kills B before B kills A, then A survives, and the human race is a race of A's.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Physics and Politics
That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Rosmunda
Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles: it is an act quite easy to be contemplated, but in its sequel, it turns out to be a horrible jangle and confounding of all relations.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations.
BENTLEY LITTLE
The Ignored
If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.
HELEN PREJEAN
Dead Man Walking
The sentence of the first murderer was pronounced by the Supreme Judge of the universe. Was it death? No, it was life. "A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth;" and "Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold."
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
It's only in love and in murder that we still remain sincere.
FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT
Incident at Twilight
I was in the war. I know how to kill. I was over there. I know how to do it. I've done it before. It's no big deal. You just make an adjustment. You convince yourself it's all right. That's all. It's easy. You just slaughter them.
SAM SHEPARD
Curse of the Starving Class
When I hear about people murdering, I wonder, What has to go through your brain to say, I don't want him breathing anymore? What makes you get that angry? How can you take someone's breath away? That just blows my mind.
GILBERT ARENAS
Esquire, Apr. 2010
When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
letter to the Japanese Ambassador, Dec. 8, 1941
Murder’s out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Othello
Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Physiology of Common Life
For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
This is the law: blood spilt upon the ground cries out
for more.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
Man kills without ceasing, to nourish himself; but since in addition he needs to kill for pleasure, he has invented the chase! The child kills the insects he finds, the little birds, all the little animals that come in his way. But this does not suffice for the irresistible need of massacre that is in us. It is not enough to kill beasts; we must kill man too. Long ago this need was satisfied by human sacrifice. Now, the necessity of living in society has made murder a crime. We condemn and punish the assassin! But as we cannot live without yielding to this natural and imperious instinct of death, we relieve ourselves from time to time, by wars. Then a whole nation slaughters another nation. It is a feast of blood, a feast that maddens armies and intoxicates the civilians, women and children, who read, by lamplight at night, the feverish story of massacre.
GUY DE MAUPASSANT
"The Diary of a Madman
I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
Dirty Hands
If your work is deathwork, one weapon is not enough, just as a plumber would not answer an urgent service call with a single wrench.
DEAN KOONTZ
Brother Odd