“It is human instinct that makes it ferocious and wild. It could be anyone or anything. That is why cruelty, savagery, criminality, brutality and evil never cease.”

—  Titon Rahmawan

Last update Nov. 30, 2023. History

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Jiddu Krishnamurti photo

“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.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

§ 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.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner photo

“I am thought of as another Himmler. I'm not. The papers make me out as a criminal. I never killed anyone.”

Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946) Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany executed for war crimes

To Leon Goldensohn, 4/8/46, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

Graham Greene photo

“Hope was an instinct only the reasoning human mind could kill. An animal never knew despair.”

Graham Greene book The Power and the Glory

Source: The Power and the Glory

Aimee Mann photo

“Come on and save me…
Why don't you save me?
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who could never love anyone.”

Aimee Mann (1960) American indie rock singer-songwriter (born 1960)

"Save Me"
Song lyrics, Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture (1999)
Context: You struck me dumb, Like radium
Like Peter Pan, or Superman,
You have come... to save me.
Come on and save me...
Why don't you save me?
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who could never love anyone.

Clifford D. Simak photo

“These kind never change. The machine does something to a man. It brutalizes him. It serves as a buffer between himself and his environment and he is the worst for it. It arouses an opportunistic instinct and makes possible a greed that makes a man inhuman.”

Clifford D. Simak book A Choice of Gods

Source: A Choice of Gods (1972), Chapter 28 (p. 152)

Ernest Hemingway photo

“Never, never tell them. Try and remember that. Never tell anyone anything ever. Never tell anyone anything again.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Garden of Eden

Source: The Garden of Eden

Sandra Bullock photo

“I never did anything according to what anyone else wanted. That's why I think I am happy.”

Sandra Bullock (1964) American actress and producer

Parade interview (2009)
Context: I never did anything according to what anyone else wanted. That's why I think I am happy. I do everything 100% — even my stupidest missteps. I know when I'm getting ready to mess up, I'm going to do it full-on.

Oscar Wilde photo

“I am afraid that woman appreciate cruelty, downright cruelty, more than anything else. They have wonderfully primitive instincts. We have emancipated them, but they remain slaves looking for their masters, all the same. They love being dominated.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Gillian Flynn photo

“She’s easy to like. I’ve never understood why that’s considered a compliment - that just anyone could like you.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Rabindranath Tagore photo

“We at once feel that cruelty to him is cruelty to ourselves, to make him small is stealing from our own humanity…”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Context: Of course man is useful to man, because his body is a marvellous machine and his mind an organ of wonderful efficiency. But he is a spirit as well, and this spirit is truly known only by love. When we define a man by the market value of the service we can expect of him, we know him imperfectly. With this limited knowledge of him it becomes easy for us to be unjust to him and to entertain feelings of triumphant self-congratulation when, on account of some cruel advantage on our side, we can get out of him much more than we have paid for. But when we know him as a spirit we know him as our own. We at once feel that cruelty to him is cruelty to ourselves, to make him small is stealing from our own humanity...

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