Cruelties Quotes
More Cruelties Quotes
Terror consists mostly of useless cruelties perpetrated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves.
Friedrich Engels— Letter to Marx (4 September 1870)
The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age.
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill— 1942 Speech, 26 Mar, in devastated war-time London.
The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.
thomas paine— Chapter III: Conclusion
Jehovah, Allah, the Trinity, Jesus, Buddha, are names for a great variety of human virtues, human mystical experiences human remorses, human compensatory fantasies, human terrors, human cruelties. If all men were alike, all the world would worship the same God.
aldous huxley— “One and Many,” p. 3
They stormed Oudewater, and delivered it over to all imaginable cruelties, sparing neither sex nor age.
william the silent— William on the cruel actions of the Spanish at Oudewater, as quoted in William the Silent (1902) by Frederic Harrison, p. 87
What determinate events is, beside national, dynastic and particular egoism, the instinct of domination and conquest, in one word, forceBold text. Judging by the history of humanity, harms that men have had to suffer, harms ("les maux", Fr.) that men have to suffer by their nature are minute in comparison ("en regard", Fr.) to these they inflict to each others. The most fantastic imagination might not ("ne saurait", Fr.) fabricate ("forger", Fr) some cruelties, injustices and perfidies (or perfidiousnesses) that men have not exceeded in practice.
african spir— p. 55 (Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937))
If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
— Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
They stormed Oudewater, and delivered it over to all imaginable cruelties, sparing neither sex nor age.
— William on the cruel actions of the Spanish at Oudewater, as quoted in William the Silent (1902) by Frederic Harrison, p. 87
I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying cruelties and injustices inflicted on millions of his contemporaries by the benefits which he hopes to confer on future generations.
— C. S. Lewis, The World's Last Night (1952)
Those who suggest that the 'dark ages' were a time of violence and superstition would do well to remember the appalling cruelties of our own time, truly without parallel in past ages, as well as the fact that the witch-hunts were not strictly speaking a medieval phenomenon but belong rather to the so-called Renaissance.
— Le Goff, Jacques (2003). Parma Interview
The most horrible wickedness and cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have troubled the human race began with this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. … It would be far, far better for us to let a thousand devils roam the world, and publicly preach the doctrine of devils (if there were such a thing, which there isn't), than to let one impostor and monster such a Moses, Joshua, Samuel or the Bible prophets come speaking the so-called word of God, and causing men to believe it.
thomas paine— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794).
Tacitus appears to have been as great an enthusiast as Petrarch for the revival of the republic and universal empire. He has exerted the vengeance of history upon the emperors, but has veiled the conspiracies against them, and the incorrigible corruption of the people which probably provoked their most atrocious cruelties. Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people.
john adams— Diary of John Adams, Volume 3; July 31, 1796.
The horrid cruelties and outrages that once and a while find their way into the papers — such cases as Prue's, for example — what do they come from? In many cases, it is a gradual hardening process on both sides — the owner growing more and more cruel, as the servant more and more callous. Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
harriet beecher stowe— Uncle Tom's Cabin, Chapter 20: Topsy (1852)
