quotations about murder
They killed to free themselves from a tyranny of love and care.
J. G. BALLARD
Running Wild
Murder is not some fictional conceit, imagined for the purpose of entertainment, but actually happens: and afterwards no credits roll, and life has to continue to be lived even if you have absolutely no idea where the deeds to the house are kept, or who services the lawn mower.
MICHAEL MARSHALL
Blood of Angels
Watchful are the Gods of all
Hands with slaughter stained. The black
Furies wait, and when a man
Has grown by luck, not justice, great,
With sudden overturn of chance
They wear him to a shade, and, cast
Down to perdition, who shall save him?
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
The unwary, unlucky, and sometimes grossly foolish, can become murder victims in myriad ways. Drug deals go bad and turn into violent shootouts; women and children of both sexes are murdered by rapists; serial killers troll for male and female prostitutes, barroom pickups, or hitchhikers; longtime drinking buddies kill each other in drunken brawls; men and women are shot down for a few dollars after making withdrawels at ATM machines; others die in coldly-calculated, carefully-planned executions; and family members are turning on each other with increasing frequency. It is a continual struggle between good and evil that provides plotlines for countless movies, television series, newspapers, and books.
CLIFFORD L. LINEDECKER
Poisoned Views
Even in killing men, observe the rules of propriety.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
A man hath murdered another; why? he loved his wife or his estate; or would rob for his own livelihood; or feared to lose some such things by him; or, wronged, was on fire to be revenged. Would any commit murder upon no cause, delighted simply in murdering? who would believe it? for as for that furious and savage man, of whom it is said that he was gratuitously evil and cruel, yet is the cause assigned; "lest" (saith he) "through idleness hand or heart should grow inactive." And to what end? that, through that practice of guilt, he might, having taken the city, attain to honours, empire, riches, and be freed from fear of the laws, and his embarrassments from domestic needs, and consciousness of villainies. So then, not even Catiline himself loved his own villainies, but something else, for whose sake he did them.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Confessions
It's harder to kill people. The empathy is so much stronger that the mind must invent new reasons. But, if we can somehow link it to our own survival, the mind will make the devious twists and turns necessary to rationalize it. We're very good at that.
JEAN M. AUEL
The Shelters of Stone