Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 154. Compare: "One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame", Edward Young, "Love of Fame", Satire vii, line 55.
“Wars, conflict, it's all business. "One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero."”
Numbers sanctify.
Monsieur Verdoux (1947); Chaplin in this line is quoting an older statement of Bishop Beilby Porteus: "One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero."
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Charlie Chaplin 75
British comic actor and filmmaker 1889–1977Related quotes
Source: Stan Lee, “1993: Jack Kirby: The Hardest Working Man in Comics by Steve Pastis” https://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/category/interview/, Happening Magazine, (1993) by Steve Pastin; as quoted by Rand Hoppe, The Kirby Effect The Journal of the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, (28 April 2018).
“In the theatre, as in life, we prefer a villain with a sense of humor to a hero without one.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Theater
“Live as a villain, die as a hero”
Source: Wall and Piece
Source: "It Didn’t Take Long for Me to Feel Empathy: Nanfu Wang on In the Same Breath" in Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/it-didnt-take-long-for-me-to-feel-empathy-nanfu-wang-on-in-the-same-breath (17 August 2021)
“Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.”
"George R. R. Martin Interview GAME OF THRONES" http://collider.com/george-r-r-martin-interview-game-of-thrones/ by Christina Radish, Collider (17 April 2011)
“Wars may make heroes of men, but not all the time.”
Source: Briar Rose (1992), Chapter 25 (p. 146)
Review of The Changeling, by Thomas Middleton (1961), p. 75
Tynan Right and Left (1967)
“Where there are villains, there will be heroes. Just wait. They will come.”
Source: Steelheart