Quotes about killing (3996 quotes, page 6)

“I think it is grave to kill men, under the pretext that they are mistaken on the interpretation of some point, for we know that even the chosen ones are not exempt from sometimes being wrong.”

Michael Servetus (1511–1553) Spanish physician and theologian

Letter to Oecolampadius, an hebraist of Basel, as quoted by Francisco Javier González Echeverría, and translated by Otis Towns & Miguel González Ancín in the English "Introduction" at Michael Servetus Rresearch http://www.michaelservetusresearch.com/ENGLISH/
Context: Inherent of human condition is the sickness of believing the rest are impostors and heathen, and not ourselves, because nobody recognizes his own mistakes … If one must condemn everyone that misses in a particular point then every mortal would have to be burnt a thousand times. The apostles and Luther himself have been mistaken … If I have taken the word, by any reason, it has been because I think it is grave to kill men, under the pretext that they are mistaken on the interpretation of some point, for we know that even the chosen ones are not exempt from sometimes being wrong.

Men , Thinking

“A stroke with the edges, though made with ever so much force, seldom kills, as the vital parts of the body are defended both by the bones and armor; on the contrary a stab, though it penetrates but two inches, is generally fatal.”
Caesa enim, quouis impetu ueniat, non frequenter interficit, cum et armis uitalia defendantur et ossibus; at contra puncta duas uncias adacta mortalis est.

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus book De re militari

Book 1
De Re Militari (also Epitoma Rei Militaris), Book I, "The Selection and Training of New Levies"

Parting

“Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism, not mindless killing — but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Remarks on Egyptian political transition (February 2011)
Context: I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world.
Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.
We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like.
We saw a young Egyptian say, “For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I’m only one person, this is the way real democracy works.”
We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” — “We are peaceful” — again and again.
We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect.
And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed.
We saw people of faith praying together and chanting – “Muslims, Christians, We are one.” And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share.
And above all, we saw a new generation emerge — a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days…that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever.
This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism, not mindless killing — but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.

Lie , Justice , History , Idea

“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats”

Robert Browning The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, line 10 (1842).
Context: Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

Dogs , Cats

“If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show that the power to take from a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power of life and death; and that to enslave a man is to kill him. Why, then, to this other question: What is property! may I not likewise answer, It is robbery, without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist

Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Context: If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show that the power to take from a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power of life and death; and that to enslave a man is to kill him. Why, then, to this other question: What is property! may I not likewise answer, It is robbery, without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?
I undertake to discuss the vital principle of our government and our institutions, property: I am in my right. I may be mistaken in the conclusion which shall result from my investigations: I am in my right. I think best to place the last thought of my book first: still am I in my right.

Life , Death , Question , Personality

“Bureaus die when the structure of the state collapse. They are as helpless and unfit for independent existence as a displaced tapeworm, or a virus that has killed the host.”

William S. Burroughs book Naked Lunch

Ordinary Men and Women
Naked Lunch (1959)
Context: The end result of complete cellular representation is cancer. Democracy is cancerous, and bureaus are its cancer. A bureau takes root anywhere in the state, turns malignant like the Narcotic Bureau, and grows and grows, always reproducing more of its own kind, until it chokes the host if not controlled or excised. Bureaus cannot live without a host, being true parasitic organisms. (A cooperative on the other hand can live without the state. That is the road to follow. The building up of independent units to meet needs of the people who participate in the functioning of the unit. A bureau operates on opposite principles of inventing needs to justify its existence.) Bureaucracy is wrong as a cancer, a turning away from the human evolutionary direction of infinite potentials and differentiation and independent spontaneous action to the complete parasitism of a virus. (It is thought that the virus is a degeneration from more complex life-form. It may at one time have been capable of independent life. Now has fallen to the borderline between living and dead matter. It can exhibit living qualities only in a host, by using the life of another — the renunciation of life itself, a falling towards inorganic, inflexible machine, towards dead matter.) Bureaus die when the structure of the state collapse. They are as helpless and unfit for independent existence as a displaced tapeworm, or a virus that has killed the host.

“A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Cooper Union speech (1860)
Context: But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.

Death , Money

“If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

As quoted in The New York Times (24 June 1941); also in TIME magazine (2 July 1951) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815031,00.html)
Context: If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.

Way , Help

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

Armistice Day speech (11 November 1948), published in Omar Bradley's Collected Writings, Volume 1 (1967).
Context: We have men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.

War , World , Peace

“When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape -- that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving -- that’s slavery. When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that’s slavery. When a little girl is sold by her impoverished family”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2012, Remarks at Clinton Global Initiative (September 2012)
Context: Now, I do not use that word, "slavery" lightly. It evokes obviously one of the most painful chapters in our nation’s history. But around the world, there’s no denying the awful reality. When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape -- that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving -- that’s slavery. When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that’s slavery. When a little girl is sold by her impoverished family -- girls my daughters’ age -- runs away from home, or is lured by the false promises of a better life, and then imprisoned in a brothel and tortured if she resists -- that’s slavery. It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world.

Family , Home , Girl , Boy

“Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2009, A New Beginning (June 2009)
Context: Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the centre of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth: violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.

“War kills wealth as it does men; it goes away in ruins and smoke, and one cannot fabricate gold any more than soldiers.”

Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist

Light (1919), Ch. XVI - De Profundis Clamavi
Context: We cannot say out of what historical conjunctions the final tempests will issue, nor by what fancy names the interchangeable ideals imposed on men will be known in that moment. But the cause — that will perhaps everywhere be fear of the nations' real freedom. What we do know is that the tempests will come.
Armaments will increase every year amid dizzy enthusiasm. The relentless torture of precision seizes me. We do three years of military training; our children will do five, they will do ten. We pay two thousand million francs a year in preparation for war; we shall pay twenty, we shall pay fifty thousand millions. All that we have will be taken; it will be robbery, insolvency, bankruptcy. War kills wealth as it does men; it goes away in ruins and smoke, and one cannot fabricate gold any more than soldiers. We no longer know how to count; we no longer know anything. A billion — a million millions — the word appears to me printed on the emptiness of things. It sprang yesterday out of war, and I shrink in dismay from the new, incomprehensible word.
There will be nothing else on the earth but preparation for war. All living forces will be absorbed by it; it will monopolize all discovery, all science, all imagination.

Men , War , Wealth

“It is easy to kill when you don't see your victim.”

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990) Swiss author and dramatist

“What do you want to do, get yourself killed before you are thirty? You'd better get some sense while a few of us are left alive.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

Sense

“Nobody was ever killed except outlaws, and the community is better off without them.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

Communication

“My main reason for being a vegetarian is that I’m an animal lover — definitely NOT because I love vegetables. … I thought it was awful, all those animals getting packed up in there waiting to be killed. I couldn’t believe that’s how I’d been getting my meat! … I had this crazy dream about raining hamburgers. You know that book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? It was like that, with giant food falling out of the sky. And I still remember the dream so clearly.”

Zendaya (1996) American actress, singer, model, and dancer

"Zendaya Reveals Why She Became a Vegetarian: It's 'Definitely Not Because I Love Vegetables'" https://people.com/food/zendaya-vegetarian-diet/, People (9 December 2016).

Chance , Waiting , Food , Dreams

“BERISH: Men and women are being beaten, tortured and killed—how can one not be afraid of Him? True, they are victims of men. But the killers kill in His name. Not all? True, but numbers are unimportant. Let one killer kill for His glory, and He is guilty. Every man who suffers or causes suffering, every woman who is raped, every child who is tormented implicates Him. What, you need more? A hundred or a thousand? Listen: either He is responsible or He is not. If He is let’s judge Him; if He is not, let Him stop judging us.”

Elie Wiesel The Trial of God

Act I (p. 54)
The Trial of God (1979)

Suffering , Women , Men

“Too much imagination and I’ll scare myself to death. Too little and I’ll get myself killed.”

Larry Niven book A World Out of Time

Source: A World Out of Time (1976), Chapter 4 The Norn, Section 1 (p. 95)

Imagination , Death

“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.”

James Mattis (1950) 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense; United States Marine Corps general

After the invasion of Iraq -and after sending his tanks and artillery home- Mattis sent this message to the Iraqi leaders in every area his men served in, as quoted in Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006) by Thomas E. Ricks; as excerpted in Armed Forces Journal (August 2006) http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/fiasco/

Peace , Tear

“But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation?”

Smedley D. Butler book War Is a Racket

War is a racket (1935)

War , Sister , Children , Men

“It is normal to hate what we fear, and it happens frequently, though not always, that we fear what we hate. I think it may be taken as the rule among primitive men, that they both fear and hate whatever is unfamiliar. They have their own herd, originally a very small one. And within one herd, all are friends, unless there is some special ground of enmity. Other herds are potential or actual enemies; a single member of one of them who strays by accident will be killed. An alien herd as a whole will be avoided or fought according to circumstances. It is this primitive mechanism which still controls our instinctive reaction to foreign nations. The completely untravelled person will view all foreigners as the savage regards a member of another herd. But the man who has travelled, or who has studied international politics, will have discovered that, if his herd is to prosper, it must, to some degree, become amalgamated with other herds.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)

Study , Hate , Personality , Thinking

“A critic never made or killed a book or a play. The people themselves are the final judges. It is their opinion that counts. After all, the final test is truth. But the trouble is that most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession and therefore are most economical in its use.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Said to portrait painter Samuel Johnson Woolf, cited in Here am I (1941), Samuel Johnson Woolf; this has often been abbreviated: Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

Truth , Books , People

“Inside the henhouse from where he will be taken to be killed, the cock sings hymns to liberty because he was given two perches.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 144
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Dentro da capoeira de onde irá a matar, o galo canta hinos à liberdade porque lhe deram dois poleiros.

Singing

“When they asked for those to raise their hands who'd go down to the courthouse the next day, I raised mine. Had it up high as I could get it. I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been a little scared — but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.”

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) American civil rights activist (October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977)

As quoted in The Crosswinds of Freedom, 1932-1988, p. 636, by James MacGregor Burns (2012)

Sense , Time

“Girls are no fun to kill. Guys are more interesting to kill.”

John Wayne Gacy (1942–1994) American serial killer and torturer

Quoted by victim and survivor Robert Donnelly in: Sullivan, Terry; Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders (2011), Pinnacle, pg. 284

Girl , Guy

“That's why I said, ‘Hey, you bystanders, when your bishop passes by, stick him up, that son of a bitch is rich. Kill him.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Kaya pagdating ko sabi ko, ‘Hoy, kayong mga tambay diyan, 'pag dumaan 'yang obispo ninyo holdapan 'yan maraming pera 'yan putang ina niya. Patayin mo.’

Duterte to tambays: Steal from, kill 'rich' bishops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Z8kVCJ-Z8&t=58 (January 10, 2019)

Bitch

“Involvement kills, indifference frees.”

Swami Samarpanananda Monk, Author, Teacher

Tiya-A Parrot's Journey Home ( Page 124 )

Indifference

“Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
And no religion, too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Lyrics, Imagine (1971 album)

Peace , Imagination , Religion , Country

“when I listen to Iranian songs, it's like all of these daily releases are made by 1 guy, it is funny when all singers and artists wanna copy another one, it will kill the creativity forever.”

Big Mori (1996) Iranian rapper and athlete

Source: Skeletaa website https://www.skeletaa.com/post/big-mori-iranian-music-industry-needs-to-be-more-creative interview had done by Jack Sancho, 19 March 2021
Source: Rokna News https://www.rokna.net/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%B4%DB%8C-8/673017-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B6%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D9%87%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%DA%86%D9%87%D8%B1%D9%87-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%82-%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%B4-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%DA%86%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%86%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%AF%DA%AF%DB%8C-%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85

Guy

“Ideas kill people.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 180

Idea , People

“Never let a friend kill you twice”

Nelson Itodo (2001) Nigerian Entrepreneur

Source: https://twitter.com/nelsonitodo/status/1406660193979670532?s=19

“Why would God decide to come into the world, that He created Himself, just to be killed by His own creations?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God , World

“The democrats had just been whipped in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and seized upon the unfortunate Harper's Ferry affair to influence other elections then pending. They said to each other, 'Jump in, now's your chance', and were sorry there were not more killed. But they didn't succeed well. Let them go on with their howling. They will succeed when by slandering women you get them to love you, and by slandering men you get them to vote for you.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

Chance , Love , Women , Men

“If the Republicans, who think slavery is wrong, get possession of the general government, we may not root out the evil at once, but may at least prevent its extension. If I find a venomous snake lying on the open praire, I seize the first stick and kill him at once. But if that snake is in bed with my children, I must be more cautious. I shall, in striking the snake, also strike the children, or arouse the reptile to bite the children. Slavery is the venomous snake in bed with the children. But if the question is whether to kill it on the prairie or put it in bed with other children, I think we'd kill it!”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

Lying , Question , Thinking , Children

“Some critics of the pessimist often think they have his back to the wall when they blithely jeer, “If that is how this fellow feels, he should either kill himself or be decried as a hypocrite.””

Thomas Ligotti book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

Source: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (2010)
Context: That the pessimist should kill himself in order to live up to his ideas may be counterattacked as betraying such a crass intellect that it does not deserve a response. Yet it is not much of a chore to produce one. Simply because someone has reached the conclusion that the amount of suffering in this world is enough that anyone would be better off never having been born does not mean that by force of logic or sincerity he must kill himself. It only means he has concluded that the amount of suffering in this world is enough that anyone would be better off never having been born. Others may disagree on this point as it pleases them, but they must accept that if they believe themselves to have a stronger case than the pessimist, then they are mistaken.

Thinking , Feeling

“No amount of security is worth the suffering of a mediocre life chained to a routine that has killed your dreams.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Dreams , Suffering , Life

“Never was much of a romantic
I could never take the intimacy
And I know I did damage
'Cause the look in your eyes is killing me
I guess you knew of that advantage
'Cause you could blame me for everything
And I don't know how I'ma manage
If one day, you just up and leave.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Runaway
Lyrics, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

“Now I could let these dream killers kill my self esteem,
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams
I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed
But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Last Call
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)

Dreams

“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices. It is silence that kills the world.”

Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) Italian Dominican saint

quoted in [LifeSite, The heart of the Catholic Church's current crisis is the abandonment of law and doctrine - LifeSite, 2022-06-07, 2022-05-05, https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/the-heart-of-the-catholic-churchs-current-crisis-is-the-abandonment-of-law-and-doctrine/]
Variant versions:
I see the world is rotten because of silence … speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills. (quoted at 0:23 of [Randall Terry, The Silence That Kills, 2022-06-07, 2020-10-19, 23:29, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2ncPIgui0])
Original Italian: Oimé, non più tacere! Gridate con centomiglia di lingue. Veggo che, per lo tacere, el mondo è guasto, la Sposa di Cristo è impalidita ( Lettera 16, "A uno grande prelato" http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/it/eki.htm#q)
lit.: "O alas, be silent no more! Shout with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that, through silence, the world is broken, the Bride of Christ is impaled"

Truth , World , Silence

“If our youths can try to dedicate more time for fruitful things, it will block spirit of goallessness. Wasting time replying and reposting useless things help kill potentials. It is better to sleep than to stay awake to use your consciousness to kill your potential.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Youth , Time , Help , Sleep

“He felt a killing hate for the stupid, ordinary, disapproving people who kept him from doing what he wanted to do.”

William S. Burroughs book Queer

Source: Queer: A Novel (1985), Chapter Nine

Hate , People , Stupidity

“When the devil wants to destroy talented writers, he makes them journalists. Thus he makes sure he has killed their creativity.”

Teodor Burnar

“If you want to kill an intellectual, don't blow his brains out, hire him as a clerk.”

Teodor Burnar

“If I'm not a murderer," asked Corny, "how come I keep killing people?”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Ironside

People

“I was there, the day that Horus killed the Emperor”

Dan Abnett book Horus Rising

Source: Horus Rising

“We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche

People , Time , Dependency

“Man has come to dominate the planet thanks to two essential traits. One is intelligence. The other has been the absolute willingness to kill anyone and anything that gets in his way.”

Stephen King book Cell

Source: Cell

Way , Intelligence

“I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Star

“It wouldn't kill you to get out of your comfort zone a little bit.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

“Prison always has been a good place for writers, killing, as it does, the twin demons of mobility and diversion”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Hyperion

“Kill if you will, but command me nothing!”

Stephen King book The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

Source: The Waste Lands

“Then why haven’t you killed yourself? (Astrid)
Why should I? The only enjoyment I have in my life is knowing I piss off everyone around me. If I were dead, it would make them all happy. God forbid I should ever do that. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Life , God , Dead , Happiness

“Ah, you fight like a sissy demon. (Takeshi)
Sissy demon? Have you ever met a sissy demon? (Savitar)
I killed three this morning. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Fight

“It’s a responsibility that I take most seriously, so excuse me for banning you from killing them because you have reverse PMS. (Acheron)
Reverse PMS? (Artemis)
Yeah, unlike a normal woman, you’re cranky twenty-eight days out of the month. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

“You like being vague, don't you? (Amanda)
It was a choice of being a Dark-Hunter or a prophet. Personally I like the slash-and-kill stuff much more than prayers and the lotus position. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Personality

“What's with all the running, anyway? I mean, I realize the importance of stamina and all that, but shouldn't I be moving on to something with a little hitting? They're still killing me in group practice.”
"Maybe you should hit harder.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“I will kill him.”

“Erra’s eyebrows rose. “You’d have to go through me first.”

I shrugged. “I have to do something for a warm-up.”

She laughed softly. “That’s the spirit. I do think you might be my favorite niece.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Thinking

“Even if you kill her, she'll still be alive-here." He tapped his chest. "In me. I keep her here. She's part of me. So until you kill me, you can't really kill her. And you can't win. It's that simple.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 2

Parting

“July 24, 6:03 A. M.
The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff…
Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing.
He killed himself for wanting to live.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“If you don’t go after Luke,” Clary said, enunciating very clearly, “I, personally, will kill you.”
For a moment Jocelyn looked astonished. Then she smiled. “Well,” she said, “if you put it like that.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Smile , Personality

“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Animals , Dead

“What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.”

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs

Source: The Silence of the Lambs

“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Love , Passion

“The truth is, if a werewolf behaved like this psychopath it wouldn't be because he was part animal, but because he was still too human. Only humans kill for sport.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Truth , Sport , Animals , Parting

“He was dead, all right. He had been shot, poisoned, stabbed, and strangled.

Either somebody had really had it in for him or four people had killed him. Or else it was the cleverest suicide I'd ever heard of.”

Richard S. Prather (1921–2007) American writer

Source: Take a Murder, Darling

People , Suicide , Dead

“[I] don't think I was trying to kill myself. I just wanted to hurt, and understand exactly whay I was hurting. This made sense: you cut, you felt pain, period.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Pain , Understanding , Thinking , Sense

“All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"The Crow and the Scarecrow", The New Yorker (date unknown); Further Fables for Our Time (1956). This is derived from Oscar Wilde's statement "All men kill the thing they love..."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

Men , Hate

“I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.”

Richard Adams book Watership Down

Source: Watership Down

Heart

“You're still here. No beer. I'm not corrupting a minor."
"Buta minor," she pointed out. "At least for beer."
"Yeah, and by the way, how much does it suck that I'm an adult if I kill somebody, and I'm not if I want a beer?”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Way , Beer

“Enemies will kill you with a knife in the back. Friends will kill you with kindness. Either way you're dead.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Kill the Dead

Way , Dead

“Dance until they kill you, and then we'll dance some more.”

Shane Claiborne The Irresistible Revolution

Source: The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Dance

“When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

War , Fight

“How do you accidentally kill a lord in his own manor?'

with a knife to the chest… well a pair of knives actually, one can never be too careful”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Variant: How do you 'accidentally' kill a noble man in his own mansion?"
"With a knife in the chest. Or, rather, a pair of knives in the chest...
Source: The Final Empire

“I fell in love with her for her sense of humour. If she ever lost her sense of humour, I would have to dump her. Then I'd kill myself because I couldn't live without her.”

Dean Koontz book Relentless

Source: Relentless

Love , Sense

“Those that can heal can harm; those that can cure can kill.”

Celia Rees (1949) English author

Source: Witch Child

“Shotgunning anybody in this room would be the moral equivalent of killing a car, a vacuum cleaner, a Barbie doll. Erasing a computer disk. Burning a Book. Probably that goes for killing anybody in the world. We're all such products.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Books , World , Cars

“Don't get sidetracked. If you do get sidetracked, get back on track as soon as possible. Ultimately sidetracking kills you.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

“What doesn't kill you maims you, cripples you, leaves you weak, makes you whiny and full of yourself at the same time. The more pain, the more pompous you get. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you incredibly annoying”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

Pain , Time

“And then as always, I saw the prayer coming at me.
And, as always, Number 1 killed me! Set me on fire, cooked me to medium rare and then ate me!
I really, really, really hope I haven't just given away the ending of this story.”

James Patterson book The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Source: The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Hope , Cooking

“Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails. He has stopped hissing at me.
Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Love

“stop now before i kill you
a word to the wise from your friend
PENNYWISE”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

“For the first time Valentine glanced down at the body of Brother Jeremiah. "I did kill him, and the rest of the Silent Brothers as well. I had to. They had something I needed."
"What? A sense of decency?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Sense , Time

“When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

Life , Children , Truth , Lie