Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche.… The Age of Enlightenment, which stripped nature and human institutions of gods, overlooked the God of Terror who dwells in the human soul.
—Carl Jung
There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.
—Muhammad Ali
There's a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham.
—Michael Pollan
Zen is like chemotherapy for me. It's brutal medicine that makes you go bald, but it beats the alternative.
—Shozan Jack Haubner in Zen Confidential: Confessions of a Wayward Monk
When we are violent to our enemies, we do violence to ourselves. When we brutalize others, we brutalize ourselves. And eventually we run the risk of becoming our oppressors.
—Arundhati Roy
I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.
—Groucho Marx