Violence is seductive. People get into it. It’s like a drug. It’s difficult to turn off. And it’s a sort of blood-lust. David C Brotherton, sociologist
So what you’re telling me is this escalating violence is down to a vigilante pensioner? Harry Brown 2009 starring Michael Caine & Emily Mortimer & Charlie Creed Miles & David Bradley & Ben Drew & Sean Harris & Jack O'Connell & Jamie Downey & Lee Oakes & Joseph Gilgun & Liam Cunningham et al, director Daniel Barber, chief rozzer to rozzers
In a democracy there is no place for mob violence. The Sound of Fury 1950 starring starring Frank Lovejoy & Lloyd Bridges & Kathleen Ryan & Richard Carlson & Katherine Locke & Adale Jergens & Art Smith et al, director Cyril Endfield, Sheriff
Violence is a disease caused by moral and social breakdown. That is the real problem. And it must be solved by reason. Not by emotion. With understanding, not hate. ibid. Professor
He showed me you can gain strength through violence. And with power and control you could do anything. Love, Honour & Obey 2000 starring Sadie Frost & Ray Winstone & Jonny Lee Miller & Jude Law & Kathy Burke & Sean Pertwee & Denise van Outer & Rhys Ifans et al, directors Dominic Anciano & Ray Burdis et al, commentary
This violence isn’t getting us anywhere. Odd Man Out 1947 starring James Mason & Robert Newton & Cyril Cusack & William Hartnell & Kathleen Ryan & F J McCormick & Fay Compton & Denis O'Dea et al, director Carol Reed, Johnny
It was just a matter of time before a struggle for resources would ensue. Man was no different – showcasing a perverse fascination with violence. Bunraku 2010 starring Demi Moore & Josh Hartnett & Woody Harrelson & Jordi Molla & Emily Kaiho & Shun Sugata & Ron Perlman et al, director Guy Moshe, opening commentary
But the violence of men, their cruelty and savageness to one another. The Outrage 1964 starring Paul Newman & Laurence Harvey & Claire Bloom & Edward G Robinson & William Shatner et al, director Martin Ritt, Preacher
But the instinct can be fought. We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands! But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers ... but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill – today! Star Trek s1e23: A Taste of Armageddon, Kirk
It’s attractive, isn’t it? Violence. Star Trek: Voyager s2e16: Meld, Lon Suder to Tuvok
There is a logical use for violence. Star Trek: Voyager s3e1: Basics II, Mr Suder
Are you saying it’s a crime to think about violence? Star Trek: Voyager s4e10: Random Thoughts, Janeway to planet fascist
Tuvok: My views have been somewhat modified. If you must know investigating this case has given me a new respect for your inner struggle. Burdened as you are with your primitive Klingon psyche it is a wonder you are able to keep your violent thoughts under control as much as you do.
B’Elanna: Thanks. I think.
Tuvok: You’re welcome. ibid.
He knew that the essence of war is violence, and that moderation in war is imbecility. Thomas Babington Macaulay, Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review, 1843
Along with their anti-Semitism went the belief that violence was an indispensable part of the political process. The Nazis: A Warning From History: Helped Into Power, BBC 1997
The idea is to create a situation where the people are so frightened of the violence all around them that they will throw their hands up in the air and demand, Federal Government, do something! And the only choice open will be martial law. Jerry Kirk, former Black Panther & US Communist Party
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. Martin Luther King, cited King in the Wilderness, Sky Atlantic 2018
Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. Martin Luther King
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding. It seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. Martin Luther King
Now, I’m afraid that there’s going to have to be a certain amount of violence. But at least we know it’s all in a good cause. The Black Adder: The Foretelling, BBC 1983
What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason. Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded. Robert Kennedy, April 1968
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter. This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all. ibid.
I don’t even call it violence when it’s in self-defense; I call it intelligence. Malcolm X
I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man’s problem just to avoid violence. Malcolm X
I’m nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you’ve made me go insane, and I’m not responsible for what I do. And that’s the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you’re within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don’t die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964
The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of non-violent means to combat evil and advance the good. A J Muste
An ugly kind of violence is rife, stalking the town. Yes, gangs of old ladies attacking fit, defenceless young men. Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different 1972
King Arthur [grabs Dennis]: Shut up! Will you shut up!
Dennis: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
King Arthur: Shut up!
Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I’m being repressed! Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Neil Innes Connie Booth et al, directors Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
As a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression. Noam Chomsky
You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it. Noam Chomsky
See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence. Noam Chomsky
Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn’t it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later? Bono
When I first began describing brutal aggression there were certain scientists who actually criticized me for publishing it. Jane Goodall, televised interview