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violence quotes

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“Violence . . . is the last refuge of the incompetent.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“Physical love is unthinkable without violence.” Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“It is not violence that best overcomes hate—nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem—just to avoid violence.” Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
“treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.” Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“I have always felt, . . . that violence was the last refuge of the incompetent, and empty threats the final sanctuary of the terminally inept.” Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
“If the oppressor uses violence, the oppressed have no alternative but to respond violently. In our case it was simply a legitimate form of self-defense.” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
“Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that does by the name of patriotism—how I hate them!” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it
“Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“the most violent element in society is ignorance” Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an...” Mao Zedong, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
“I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.” Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat
“Again, just as apples when unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This ripeness is so delightful to me, that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem as...” Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old Age
“Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World
“a man with a club was a lawgiver, a master to be obeyed, though not necessarily conciliated.” Jack London, The Call of the Wild
“Listen up—there's no war that will end all wars . . . War breeds war.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“It is more likely . . . mankind have a little corrupted nature, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves; God has given them neither cannon of four-and-twenty pounders, nor bayonets” Voltaire, Candide
“What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you?” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.” Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat
“For a fit of laughter which has been indulged to excess almost always produces a violent reaction.” Plato, The Republic
“What we call morality is merely a desperate enterprise, a forlorn hope, on the part of our fellow creatures to reverse the order of the universe, which is strife and murder, the blind interplay of hostile forces.” Anatole France, The Gods Are Athirst
“Yet it cannot be called talent to slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence—but more generally takes the form of apathy...” Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
“the Controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopædia…” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“Thou shalt not stand idly by to the hurl of thy fellowman.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“It is worse than whipping to be laughed at.” John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
“You can't hate something so violently unless a part of you also loves it.” Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
“When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we'll have the rifle.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
“If your little savage were left to fend for himself, if he kept all his natural artlessness and then united the minimal reasoning power of an infant with the violent passions of a man of thirty, he'd strangle his father and bed his mother.” Denis Diderot, Rameau's Nephew
“I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health.” George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

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love war hate oppression wound incompetence conditioning truth power beauty evil education humanity society peace ignorance age failure equality despair

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Isaac Asimov (3)
Aldous Huxley (2)
John Steinbeck (2)
Edgar Allan Poe (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Nelson Mandela (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
Mao Zedong (1)
Joseph Conrad (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Voltaire (1)
Denis Diderot (1)
Charlotte Brontë (1)
Emily Brontë (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Plato (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Malcolm X (1)

Related sources

Foundation (3)
Tortilla Flat (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
Brave New World (2)
Candide (1)
Neverwhere (1)
The Black Cat (2)
The Grapes of Wrath (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)
Long Walk to Freedom (1)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
Kafka on the Shore (1)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1)
The world as I see it (1)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1)
The Republic (1)
Wuthering Heights (1)
The Prince (1)
Heart of Darkness (1)