History Quotes / IDidWhatIHadToDo

'''Tenth Doctor:''' ''(to the Master)'' Do you see now? That's what they were planning...in the final days of the war. ''I had to stop them.''

->'''Daniel''': I dislike having to hammer you on this, Shinji, but I'd have thought someone who's devoted serious time to study of philosophy would have a better appreciation for the implications of his choices.\\
'''Shinji''': What do you mean?\\
'''Daniel''': I am, and always have been, a soldier. A fighter. And yes, a killer. I long ago made peace with the fact that what I do will cause death and destruction, and that will sometimes spill over on those perhaps innocent. I became the greatest killer in the omniverse so that in the end I wouldn't have to at all because opposing me would be futile. I take every possible measure to minimize innocent suffering. But choosing inaction is a moral choice too, Shinji. I find myself in agreement with Asuka here, though she made the same point much less delicately in that battle; "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs," she said. Even when she pointed out to you that by refusing to fight the other MP Evas in Berlin you’d be condemning far more innocents to death under Winthrop's rule than the fighting in the city could possibly cause, it wasn't that logical conclusion that got you, if not to take up the fight yourself, to at least stop preventing her from taking action. What got you to stop holding her back was her reminding you of the choice you’d made to stop her from killing herself earlier that night, and her pointing out that stopping her from dying then would be meaningless if you got the both of you killed in the name of not getting blood on your hands. Wanting to avoid innocent blood being shed is a noble thing, Shinji, but you were choosing to avoid personal responsibility for such to the extent that you didn’t seem to care if your choice would cause more people to suffer or die because of that.

->'''Misato''': I'm the fool. And I've become a monster.\\
'''Kaji''': You made hard choices. And you had your responsibilities.\\
'''Misato''': So much blood, Kaji. I have so much blood on my hands.\\
'''Kaji''': But you knew had to [...] You had a reason.

->'''Gamora''': We were happy on my home planet.\\
'''Thanos''': Going to bed hungry. Scrounging for scraps. [[OverpopulationCrisis Your planet was on the brink of collapse.]] I was the one who stopped that. You know what's happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It's a paradise.\\
'''Gamora''': Because you murdered half the planet!\\
'''Thanos''': [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans A small price to pay for salvation.]]

->'''Angel''': Jasmine, it's over. You've lost.\\
'''Jasmine''': ''I've'' lost? Do you have any idea what you've done?\\
'''Angel''': What I had to do.

->'''Gavin Archer''': Any war we fight with the Geth will be bloody, I was asked to find a way to avoid that.
->'''Commander Shepard''': Who gave you the right to play God?
->'''Gavin Archer''': People who were too afraid to make difficult decisions themselves. When they pray for a miracle, they're really praying for men like me to make the tough choices. If my work spares a million mothers mourning the loss of a million sons, my conscience will rest easy.

->'''Genji''': I know you tell yourself that your brother disobeyed the clan, and that you had to kill him to maintain order. That it was your duty.\\
'''Hanzo''': It ''was'' my duty, and my burden. That does not mean I do not honor him!

-->-- '''Townes Van Zandt''', "Pancho and Lefty"

->No, Anna, I belong here. Alone. Where I can be who I am ... without hurting anybody.
-->-- '''Elsa''' from ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', [[GoMadFromTheRevelation at least]] until she gets informed of the EndlessWinter

->'''Twilight:''' I never would have done it, but this isn't Equestria! We can't just dance around with con artists, make Rainbooms in the sky and expect everything to work out! It's not enough! ''We'' are not enough!
->'''Pinkie:''' No, Twilight! ''We'' stuck together! ''We'' were gonna get the help we needed! The only thing that stopped us was ''you!''
->'''Twilight:''' Well, I'm doing the best I can!
-->--''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017''

'''The Operative:''' I'm not going to live there. There's {{no place for me there}}... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

->When people pray for a miracle, they're really praying for people like me to make the hard choices..
-->-- '''Gavin Archer''', ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''

'''Thanos''': [[OmnicidalManiac A small price to pay for salvation.]]

'''General Zod:''' ...I did. And not a day goes by that it does not haunt me. But if I had to do it again, I would. I have a duty to my people, and I will not allow anyone to prevent me from carrying it out!

-->-- '''Series/DoctorWho'', "The End of Time"

->''"When it was over, none of us felt good about it. But we’d long since learned feelings were a poor guide. We’d done the right thing."''
-->--'''Captain John Rumford''', ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''

'''Doctor:'''...''(turns away, shellshocked)'' I had no choice.

->'''Ninth Doctor:''' Your race is dead! You all burned, all of you! Ten ''million'' ships on fire, the entire Dalek race wiped out in one second!\\

'''Doctor:''' I watched it happen! I ''made'' it happen!\\

-->-- '''[[spoiler:The Doctor]]''', ''Series/DoctorWho''

->I don't give a ''damn'' about your ''committee'' and its ''opinions'' on my work! Have you forgotten, sir, that we were at ''war?'' A fight with an alien race for the very survival of our ''species?'' I feel I must remind you, that it is an ''undeniable'' and may I say a ''fundamental'' quality of man that when faced with extinction, ''every'' alternative is preferable!
-->--'''The Director of Project Freelancer''', ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''

->'''The Operative:''' I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.\\
'''Mal:''' So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?\\
'''The Operative:''' I'm not going to live there. There's {{no place for me there}}... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.
-->-- ''Film/{{Serenity}}''

->Some may question your right to destroy ten billion people. Those who understand realize that you have no right to let them live...
-->-- ''In Exterminatus Extermis'', ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

->Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan''' addresses the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations following the 1986 air strikes against UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi

->Regrets, I've had a few\\
But then again, too few to mention\\
{{I did what I had to do}}\\
I saw it through, without exemption.
-->-- '''Music/FrankSinatra''', "My Way"

-->-- '''Anti Spiral''', ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''

->Victory is commemorated, failure merely remembered.
-->-- Imperial Proverb, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

->'''Jack Bauer:''' Ibrahim Haddad had targeted a bus carrying forty-five people, ten of which were children. The truth, Senator, is that I stopped that attack from happening.\\
'''Blaine Mayer:''' By torturing Mr. Haddad.\\
'''Jack Bauer:''' By doing what I deemed necessary to save innocent lives.\\
'''Blaine Mayer:''' So basically, what you are saying, Mr. Bauer, is that the ends justify the means and you are above the law.\\
'''Jack Bauer:''' When I am activated, when I am brought into a situation, there is a reason. And that reason is to complete the objectives of my mission at all costs.\\
'''Blaine Mayer:''' ...Even if it means breaking the law.\\
'''Jack Bauer:''' For a combat soldier, the difference between success and failure is your ability to adapt to your enemy. The people that I deal with, they don't care about your rules. All they care about is a result. My job is to stop them from completing their objective, at all costs. I simply adapted. In answer to your question: am I above the law? No, sir. I am more than willing to be judged by the people you claim to represent. I will let them decide what price I should pay. But please, sir, do not sit there with that smug look on your face and expect me to regret the decisions I have made. Because, sir, the truth is I don't.
-->-- ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'', "Day 7: 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM"

->Lots of ways to help people. Sometimes heal patients; sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps.
-->-- '''Mordin Solus''', ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''

-->-- '''Clark W. Griswold''', ''NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation''

->One final note: The Foundation does many distasteful things in the completion of our mission, but our mission is important enough that the price is one we must pay. Containment of SCP-231 is one of our most dangerous duties, not because of any direct danger to ourselves (like [[OmnicidalManiac SCP-682]]) but because of the danger that our resolve will fail, that we will allow ourselves to either let down our guard [[NeverHurtAnInnocent due to sympathy for the suffering of an innocent]], or that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters we will allow ourselves to become monsters through the performance of monstrous acts]]. Just do your jobs, and save the philosophizing for the shrink.
-->-- '''O5-[[spoiler:__]]''', Wiki/SCPFoundation [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-231 on SCP-231]]

->They were so close their stench filled the air... [[EvilSmellsBad you can SMELL them]], I tell you! Somewhere between the spice of vanilla and the bitter sweetness of pustulent rot. These creatures [[PuppeteerParasite inhabit the bodies of men and women]], exorcising the human soul and replacing it with their own putrid spirits. But they couldn't fool me! No, not at all, I could SMELL them, you see! They were all around me... ''[[ParanoiaFuel dear god, all around]]''... I knew what I had to do, they had to ''go'', by blade and bullet I had to get rid of them! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! Dear god, I had to do it... ''had to''... [[YouHaveToBelieveMe You believe me, don't you?]] [-[[YouHaveToBelieveMe Don't you?]]-]
-->-- '''Maximillian Roivas''', Ulyaoth Bonethief autopsy, ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''

->Pancho needs your prayers it's true, but save a few for Lefty too\\
He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old
-->-- '''Townes Van Zandt''', "Pancho and Lefty"

->War is cruelty. The crueler it is, the sooner it's over.
-->-- '''Warmaster Horus'''(and William T. Sherman before him), ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

->You don't know what you're talking about. I just ran numbers for them and stuff. We were orphans out on the street; I did what I had to do to survive and protect my little brother.
-->-- '''Mako''', ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''

->If you want to investigate and prosecute me for striking Abu Haggani, a man who is responsible for murdering over one hundred U.S. service personnel... a man who specializes in attacking grade schools filled with children... a man whose contribution to terrorism is that he was the first to recruit mentally retarded people to become suicide bombers... If that is the case you would like to put before the American people, then I welcome it. I am more than willing to publicly stand behind my position.
-->-- '''Mitch Rapp''', ''[[Creator/VinceFlynn Extreme Measures]]''

->I repent there was no other way open to me. I do not repent my life.
-->-- '''Veronica Franco''', at her trial by the [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Inquisition]], ''Dangerous Beauty''

->What I did, I did without choice... in the name of peace and sanity.
-->-- '''[[spoiler:The Doctor]]''', ''Series/DoctorWho''

->Everything we did, we did for the right reasons. I understand it’s ugly, without the context.

->'''[[InvincibleVillain Contessa:]]''' "I keep on asking myself the same questions over and over again. Maybe you can answer. Was it worth it? Would you do it all over again? Knowing what you know now? Knowing that you end up here, at gunpoint?“\\
'''[[VillainProtagonist Khepri:]]''' ''"I… know I’m supposed to say yes. But no. Some-somewhere along way, it became no.”''\\
'''Contessa:''' "Just about everyone comes to this crossroad. Some get seventy years, some only get fifteen. Enough time to grow, to take stock of who you are. Enough time to do things you’ll regret when you run out of time."\\
'''Khepri:''' ''“[[IRegretNothing Don’t- don’t regret it.]]' [[SavingTheWorld Was- had to. Saved lives.]] But I would do different, given a chance.”''

-> Once, there was a youth...\\
...who was known for miles around as a killer.\\
But she did not kill for pleasure...\\
...although she took pleasure in killing.\\
And she did not kill for profit...\\
...although she gained profit from killing.\\
She killed out of necessity,\\
because for her to live, others had to die.
-->--''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/174126?view_full_work=true Once, there were...]]'' a Homestuck fic

-> "That was a reminder that you know nothing about the decisions I have to make! [[ShutUpKirk How dare you, what fucking gives you the right to]] [[WhatTheHellHero question me]] you stupid dog? What gives you the fucking right to think that you know better? I have kept this Fleet safe for millennia, always trying to choose the best option when the choices are either blood or ash!"
-->-- '''[=Gideon020=]''' to '''[=ckk185=]''', ''Fanfic/TheUniversiad''

->'''Superman:''' [[YouKilledMyFather You killed my father?]]\\
'''General Zod:''' ...I did. And not a day goes by that it does not haunt me. But if I had to do it again, I would. I have a duty to my people, and I will not allow anyone to prevent me from carrying it out!
-->--''Film/ManOfSteel''

->"There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When that happens, the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences."
-->-- Daniel Upton, '''[[Creator/HPLovecraft "The Thing On The Doorstep"]]'''

->"Who we are, and who we need to be to survive, are very different things."
-->-- Bellamy Blake, ''Series/{{The 100}}''

->'''Daniel''':''“I dislike having to hammer you on this, Shinji, but I’d have thought someone who’s devoted serious time to study of philosophy would have a better appreciation for the implications of his choices.”''\\
'''Shinji''':''“What do you mean?”''\\
'''Daniel''':''“I am, and always have been, a soldier. A fighter. And yes, a killer. I long ago made peace with the fact that what I do will cause death and destruction, and that will sometimes spill over on those perhaps innocent. I became the greatest killer in the omniverse so that in the end I wouldn’t have to at all because opposing me would be futile. I take every possible measure to minimize innocent suffering. But choosing inaction is a moral choice too, Shinji. I find myself in agreement with Asuka here, though she made the same point much less delicately in that battle; ‘You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs’, she said. Even when she pointed out to you that by refusing to fight the other MP Evas in Berlin you’d be condemning far more innocents to death under Winthrop’s rule than the fighting in the city could possibly cause, it wasn’t that logical conclusion that got you, if not to take up the fight yourself, to at least stop preventing her from taking action. What got you to stop holding her back was her reminding you of the choice you’d made to stop her from killing herself earlier that night, and her pointing out that stopping her from dying then would be meaningless if you got the both of you killed in the name of not getting blood on your hands. Wanting to avoid innocent blood being shed is a noble thing, Shinji, but you were choosing to avoid personal responsibility for such to the extent that you didn’t seem to care if your choice would cause more people to suffer or die because of that.”''
-->--''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'', ''[[http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/2438224/ chapter 26]]''

->'''Misato''':''"I'm the fool. And I've become a monster."''\\
'''Kaji''':''"You made hard choices. And you had your responsibilities."''\\
'''Misato''':''"So much blood, Kaji. I have so much blood on my hands."''\\
'''Kaji''':''"But you knew had to, [...] You had a reason."''
-->--''Fanfic/{{HERZ}}''

->''In the season of snow,\\
in the immeasurable cold,\\
we grow cruel but honest; we keep\\
ourselves alive,\\
if we can, taking one after another\\
the necessary bodies of others, the many\\
crushed red flowers.''
-->-- "Cold", by Mary Oliver

->"I did...what you weren't prepared to do."

->'''Shinji:''' Me too. I...we did what we had to do. I feel terrible about it, but we really didn't have a choice. They had... they had to be stopped, right?"\\
'''Asuka:''' Right. We didn't have a choice. Really. They invaded our base and wanted to use us to fight for their madnesss [...] And they had... they had Katsuragi-san."
-->-- ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfAnElderGod''

->The bridge crew had performed admirably given the circumstances, as Fuyutsuki had come to expect, even if they all knew that in following his orders they would be crippling themselves beyond repair. It was, as always, a necessary sacrifice.\\
Fuyutsuki almost laughed. He had lost track of how many times Ikari had used that justification for what NERV had done, and the atrocities they had committed. Lazy minds tended to drift towards the excuses that were familiar to them, usually as a simple matter of expediency; who could come up with a new excuse every time their decisions were questioned? But eventually the sacrifices deemed necessary added up to even greater costs than the things they were determined to prevent in the first place.
-->-- ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide''

->'''Genji''': I know you tell yourself that your brother disobeyed the clan, and that you had to kill him to maintain order. That it was your duty.\\
'''Hanzo''': It ''was'' my duty, and my burden. That does not mean I do not honor him!
-->-- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ09xdxzIJQ Dragons]]'', ''Videogame/{{Overwatch}}''

->'''Angel''': Jasmine, it's over. You've lost.
->'''Jasmine''': ''I've'' lost? Do you have any idea what you've done?
->'''Angel''': What I had to do.

-->-- ''VideoGame/NaziZombies'', "The Giant"

->I heard you, [[Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]]. You longed to return to Argo City. I did only what needed to be done to give you that.
-->-- '''Cyborg Superman''', ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth #3''

-->-- '''FrankSinatra''', "My Way"

-->-- '''Maximillian Roivas''', Ulyaoth Bonethief autopsy, ''EternalDarkness''