“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly flourish "I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant".
The Second World War, Volume III : The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl Harbor).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
“Ugly people kill people all the time. But when pretty people did, it got attention.”
Chelsea Cain (1972) American journalist and writer
Source: Kill You Twice
Sanjaya Malakar (1989) American reality television personality
Asked to reveal how he would wear his hair at his first American Idol Concert Tour 2007. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/streeter/entries/2007/07/american_idol_l_2.html
R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer
"Golden Gate" in Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982)
Context: When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.
Eugene Fama (1939) American economist and Nobel laureate in Economics
Cited in: Lawrence Delevingne. " Nobel winner Fama: Active management 'never' good. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102014057" at cnbc.com. 19 Sept. 2014.
Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer
Something So Right
Song lyrics, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)