It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

justice war morality violence murder

About Voltaire

Portrait of Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his pen name Voltaire (, US also ; French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher (philosophe), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Catholic Church) and...

More quotations from Voltaire

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

love paradise tenderness

Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

history crime luck

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Everything too stupid to be said is sung.

music stupidity

More quotations tagged with “murder”

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

death murder challenge duels

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

—Albert Einstein

war heroism morality music violence patriotism killing murder civilization

How many women, she wondered, had poisoned their husbands, not for gain or for another man, but out of sheer inability to leave them. The extreme solution is always the simplest. The weed killer is in the soup; the man is in his coffin. . . . Murder is more civilized than divorce; the Victorians, as usual, were wiser.

—Mary McCarthy

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.

—Mahatma Gandhi

truth love history time inevitability tyranny murder

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

—Alfred Hitchcock

killing murder film cleanliness