“Those who follow orders to commit such crimes will be found and they will be punished. War crimes will be prosecuted. And it will be no excuse to say, 'I was just following orders.' Any official involved in such crimes will forfeit hope of amnesty or leniency with respect to past action.”

September 23, 1777, p. 363
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Context: It must be agreed that in most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.

§ IV
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Context: Then as to cruelty. This is of two kinds, intentional and unintentional. Intentional cruelty is purposely to give pain to another living being; and that is the greatest of all sins — the work of a devil rather than a man. You would say that no man could do such a thing; but men have done it often, and are daily doing it now. The inquisitors did it; many religious people did it in the name of their religion. Vivisectors do it; many schoolmasters do it habitually. All these people try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all.

Source: Wall and Piece (2005)

1900s, Letter to Winfield T. Durbin (1903)

Source: The Woman in White

To Kaum Buksh Also in Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh https://books.google.com/books?id=w8qJAwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA4 p. 4 Also in Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia https://books.google.com/books?id=7PS6PrH3rtkC&amp;pg=PA134 p. 134 Also in The Rajpoot Tribes Vol.2 by Charles Metcalfe, p. 305 <br class="br">Quotes from late medieval histories

But as the Nazis learned in 1945, unemployed war criminals can usually find work with the new hegemonic power.
"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege" (2011)

Source: Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World