Fiction
"Have you ever had to kill a man, Max? Have you? To pull that trigger, you have to be sure. Yes, you investigate, analyze, assess, target. And then you have to look him in the eye. And you make the call. And all the drones, bugs, cameras, transcripts, all the surveillance in the world can't tell you what to do next. A licence to kill is also a licence not to kill."
— Director Malory chastising another agent for assuming 00 Agents are heartless killers in Spectre
"They say the more teddybears you tickle the easier it gets. No, sir."
— Abraham Simpson's Bowdlerized war story, The Simpsons
"I'd like to congratulate you on succeeding where so many before you have failed. A bullet between the eyes would have been preferable to this charade. But I've learned to pretend over the past nine years. To pretend that my victories mattered, only to realize that no one was keeping score. To realize that liars do not fear the truth if there are enough liars. That the devil is just one man with a plan, but evil — true evil — is a collaboration of men, which is what we have here today."
— Fox Mulder at his sentencing hearing, The X-Files, "The Truth"
Edelgard: I've killed many people, Dorothea. Whether it was through my axe or my orders. As a child, I... never imagined myself having to make the decisions I do.
Dorothea: Does it ever get easier?
Edelgard: (shakes head) No, never. When it does... that's when I'll know I've truly lost myself.
Dorothea: Does it ever get easier?
Edelgard: (shakes head) No, never. When it does... that's when I'll know I've truly lost myself.
— The Emperor and the Goddess, Chapter 5: "Hands Marked Crimson"
Elizabeth: Do you ever get used to it? The killing?
Booker: Faster than you can imagine.
Elizabeth: How do you do it? How do you forget? How do you wash away the things you've done?
Booker: (sigh) You don't. You just learn to live with it.
Booker: Faster than you can imagine.
Elizabeth: How do you do it? How do you forget? How do you wash away the things you've done?
Booker: (sigh) You don't. You just learn to live with it.
On works
"The X-Men traveling through time to assault a pyramid full of deathtraps? ...Of course, the show kind of muddles things up by taking a break for a flute solo (really) and a philosophical debate from Beast about how it’s probably pointless to destroy Apocalypse, since Evil is a nebulous concept that balances Good and will likely take another form, and while there are a lot of problematic ideas wrapped up in that idea, I think we can all agree that it’s a pretty fatalistic attitude for a superhero."
— Chris Sims on
X-Men: The Animated Series, "Beyond Good and Evil Pt. 3"
X-Men: The Animated Series, "Beyond Good and Evil Pt. 3"