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violence quotes

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“Violence . . . is the last refuge of the incompetent.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“It is not violence that best overcomes hate—nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“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
“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
“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
“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 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we'll have the rifle.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
“What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you?” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“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
“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
“It is worse than whipping to be laughed at.” John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
“For a fit of laughter which has been indulged to excess almost always produces a violent reaction.” Plato, The Republic
“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
“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
“Listen up—there's no war that will end all wars . . . War breeds war.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“a man with a club was a lawgiver, a master to be obeyed, though not necessarily conciliated.” Jack London, The Call of the Wild
“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
“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
“You can't hate something so violently unless a part of you also loves it.” Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
“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
“I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health.” George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Thou shalt not stand idly by to the hurl of thy fellowman.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“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
“Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence—but more generally takes the form of apathy...” Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Related topics

revenge war peace love incompetence hate oppression wound self-control morality failure laughter evil power beauty glory savagery ignorance truth equality

Related authors

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

Related sources

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