“One does not learn how to die by killing others.”
Book IX: Ch. 4: Danton – Camille Desmoulins – Fabre d’Églantine.
Mémoires d'outre-tombe (1848 – 1850)
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François-René de Chateaubriand 28
French writer, politician, diplomat and historian 1768–1848Related quotes
“We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”
La force qui tue est une forme sommaire, grossière de la force. Combien plus variée en ses procédés, combien plus surprenante en ses effets, est l'autre force, celle qui ne tue pas; c'est-à-dire celle qui ne tue pas encore.
in The Simone Weil Reader, p. 155
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), The Iliad or The Poem of Force (1940-1941)
“If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.”
Pt. 1, Ch. 5
Christine (1983)
“Who can be forced has not learned how to die.”
Cogi qui potest nescit mori.
Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules), line 426; (Megara).
Alternate translation: Who can be compelled does not know how to die.
Tragedies
“Just when I thought I was learning how to live, 'twas then I realized I was learning how to die.”