“There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.”
Widely attributed to Camus on the internet, the earliest attribution of such a statement to him yet located is an unsourced citation in Quotations from the Wayside (1999) by Brenda Wong: "Many things are worth dying for, but none worth killing for." The earliest occurrence yet located of such a statement, by anyone, is one by Albert Dietrich in a 31 January 1943 letter to his conscientious objector status Hearing Officer, reported in Army GI, Pacifist CO : The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich (2005) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3o4JN_C69VwC edited by Scott H. Bennett: "There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for."
Prior to the attribution to Camus, the most widely publicized occurrence of such an expression was probably in the song "Too Long A Soldier" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoQcU1ecPOc by Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher, sung by Pat Benatar on her album Wide Awake In Dreamland (1988): "I've seen so much worth dying for, so little worth killing over."
Misattributed
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Albert Camus 209
French author and journalist 1913–1960Related quotes
Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
“… [A]nything worth dying for… is certainly worth living for.”
Source: Catch-22
“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”
“And love … love was worth dying for.
Worth living for, too.”
Source: Lover Reborn
“This country is worth dying for.”
Interview with Glenn Greenwald, 6 June 2013, Part 1
“The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for.”
“Unless we have something worth dying for, Atretes, we've nothing worth living for.”
Source: A Voice in the Wind
