Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life.

Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life.

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at read more

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.

One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero.--Princes were privileg'd
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
read more

One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero.--Princes were privileg'd
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
Ah! why will kings forget that they are men,
And men that they are brethren?

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly read more

The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood as it is perhaps also in ours.

One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To read more

One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and
you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, read more

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and
you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

You also, O son Brutus.
[Lat., Et tu, Brute fili.]

You also, O son Brutus.
[Lat., Et tu, Brute fili.]

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.