Violence And Humans Quotes

“She was struck by the selfish thought that this was not fair to her. That she’d been in the middle of a different story, one that had nothing to do with this. She was a person who was finding her daughter, making things right with her daughter, and there was no room in that story for the idiocy of extreme religion, the violence of men she’d never met. Just as she’d been in the middle of a story about divorce when the towers fell in New York City, throwing everyone’s careful plans to shit. Just as she’d once been in a story about raising her own brother, growing up with her brother in the city on their own, making it in the world, when the virus and the indifference of greedy men had steamrolled through. She thought of Nora, whose art and love were interrupted by assassination and war. Stupid men and their stupid violence, tearing apart everything good that was ever built. Why couldn’t you ever just go after your life without tripping over some idiot’s dick?”
― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers

“There's no room for hate and violence in this world. We must learn to be more kind, compassionate, empathetic, and sympathetic to humanity.”
― Germany Kent

“Having 'holy' thoughts, and doing bad deeds, such a lot are assholes indeed.”
― Fakeer Ishavardas

“I used to wonder wat it was that drove people like him to become the monsters they became. If it was a consequence of all that time , maybe - the need to indulge ever-darker desires, just to stave off the crushing boredom of forever. But you live long enough, you look into the mundane murk of people's souls often enough, you see Danton didn't really become anything. He'd just had the shackles of consequence removed. Give someone the power to do anything they want, and they'll do exactly that. That's the horrifying part - the only thing holding some folk back from the worst atrocities they can imagine is the fear they might not get away with it.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“If you want to know why the human primate behaves the way it does, I can easily explain:

1. human life span
2. human physiology at each stage of life="hormones"
3. our current state of evolution (still primitive in many ways).

Humans are the only species on earth aware of their own deaths. They aren't here for long so they are very concerned with the quality of their lives more so than the quality of the lives that will come after them. It is our life spans that trap us, make us truly incapable of long-term decisions which would require sacrifice we as a species are not willing to make.

Hormones: at each life stage, we are influenced heavily by hormones-raging levels in the young male or not, descending in the middle aged man or woman. Hormones also influence our behavior.

Lastly, we are not out of the oven yet as far as evolution goes, still prone to settle our differences through primitive means--greed and violence.

Here is a thought question for you-how would things differ if the average human could expect to live 200 years instead of 70+-?”
― Virginia Arthur

“Sometimes I feel it is best to experience as little as possible. I have become so accustomed to the sight of blood that this afternoon I witnessed the execution of two soldiers for cowardice. All that occurred to me was that their severed heads went rolling about just like dice. This only goes to show what I have always held: that horrors do not sharpen but blunt the senses. An old friend once set above his vestibule door the blood-soaked cuirass in which his father was killed. He put it there, he said, as a perpetual reminder of the horror of violence. And was he reminded? The first time he passed the vestibule, yes. The second time, maybe. The third time not at all, and thereafter he grew used to it, and was later killed in an amphitheatre riot with his fingers on another man's throat.”
― Colin Thubron, Emperor

“When anybody could tell, nobody was ever going to give fucking peace a chance.”
― Janet Fitch, Paint it Black

“You see, deep in their hearts they’re convinced that a colonization that doesn't end in a seditious movement and massacres is not a successful colonization. Perhaps they’re right, in a way.”
― Romain Gary, The Roots of Heaven

“Violence does not solve violence.”
― Jaclyn Johnston

“A weapon is only an extension of one’s own persona; as lethal or useless as the person wielding it.”
― Anurag Shourie, Half A Shadow

“[T]he life of a person does not first leave when the heart weakens and ceases to beat. The life of a person first leaves when they are witness to the violence of man.”
― Kelleen Goerlitz, The Complete Works of a Lost Girl

“I used to wonder what it was that drove people like him to become the monsters they became. If it was a consequence of all that time , maybe - the need to indulge ever-darker desires, just to stave off the crushing boredom of forever. But you live long enough, you look into the mundane murk of people's souls often enough, you see Danton didn't really become anything. He'd just had the shackles of consequence removed. Give someone the power to do anything they want, and they'll do exactly that. That's the horrifying part - the only thing holding some folk back from the worst atrocities they can imagine is the fear they might not get away with it.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“What with the lake and the railroads, and what with blizzards and floods and barn fires and forest fires and the general availability of shotguns and bear traps and homemade liquor and dynamite, what with the prevalence of loneliness and religion and the rages and ecstasies they induce, and the closeness of families, violence was inevitable.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping ~ by MARILYNNE ROBINSON ~ First Edition ~ 1st Printing 1980

“I’d only gone and whacked his front teeth out and they’d stuck in my hand, I still have the scar to this very day. A few weeks later, I got banged up for it; he never went to the police until two weeks later. Somebody had put him wise about getting compensation from the Criminal Injuries Board. Anyway, the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) kicked it in to touch as a ‘no go’ case.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Violence like that is private, don't you think?”
― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River

“Billy was involuntarily making convulsive sounds that were a lot like laughter. 'You think it's funny, huh?' Weary inquired. He walked around to Billy's back. Billy's jacket and shirt and undershirt had been hauled up around his shoulders by the violence, so his back was naked. There, inches from the tips of Weary's combat boots, were the pitiful buttons of Billy's spine.

Weary drew back his right boot, aimed a kick at the spine, at the tube which had so many of Billy's important wires in it. Weary was going to break that tube.

But then Weary saw that he had an audience. Five German soldiers and a police dog on a leash were looking down into the bed of the creek. The soldiers' blue eyes were filled with bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr.