Violence

I do believe that radical extremists have tried to use Islam as a cause for attacks on America. As I have stated before, they are not true followers of Islam. In my view they are simply terrorists, much like the so-called "Christians" of the white supremacy groups.
~ Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin, Statement from the Pentagon Public Affairs Office (17 October 2003).

We need to find a way to reduce the violence, the bloodshed, so a child born today has the opportunity to live a full productive life. It can be done. It won't be easy. But it can be done. ... The change we want in this city is a city that's free from the influence of gang-bangers.
~ William J. Bratton, NBC4 News (13 December 2002). Religious Leaders Bless Police Chief William Bratton

Human life is too sacred a thing to commence taking before you have resorted to all possible means to avoid the taking of it.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Address at the National Peace Conference, New York (17 April 1907).

All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers.
~ William S. Burroughs, in Grand Street, no. 37 (1992). The War Universe

If we don't control our violence, if we don't control the effect of the symbol of our glorification of violence on our children and on the rest of the planet, then this human species is going to be the first to destroy itself completely.
~ (William) Ramsey Clark, Speech, Rally Against Sanctions on Iraq, Los Angeles, CA (1998). U.S. Will Pay Price for Rule of the Rich

Our emotions cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal cannot undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life, and brutalizes society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life.
~ (William) Ramsey Clark

They'd have to find a spot where they can, but it's a lot better being in here than being out there.
~ William C. Codd II, The Associated Press (15 November 2001). Baltimore Prepares Fallout Shelter

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence -- reverance for human life and the environment.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Without love violence will change the world; it will change it into a more violent one.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (stated in June 1969), in William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience (2006).

The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it.
~ Bill Cosby, (1992).

The threat is not dying. The threat everyday is becoming more sophisticated, if not more pervasive.
~ (Admiral) William J. Crowe, Jr., in CBS News (12 August 2000). American Embassies At Risk

The use of violence as an instrument of persuasion is therefore inviting and seems to the discontented to be the only effective protest.
~ William Orville Douglas, Points of Rebellion (1969). A Start Towards Reconstructing Our Society

Violence has no constitutional sanction; and every government from the beginning has moved against it. But where grievances pile high and most of the elected spokesmen represent the Establishment, violence may be the only effective response.
~ William Orville Douglas, Points of Rebellion (1969). A Start Towards Reconstructing Our Society

Deringer pistols were designed for effectiveness at short range -- across the poker table, for example.
~ William B. Edwards, quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1997).

I've never struck a woman in my life, not even my own mother.
~ W.C. Fields

The world does not grow better by force or by the policeman's club.
~ William Jay Gaynor, in Mayor Gaynor's Letters And Speeches (1913). Conditions in New York (Remarks at the East Side Club, New York City; 12 November 1912)

Violent antipathies are always suspicious, and betray a secret affinity.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays (1821-1822). On Vulgarity and Affectation

Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won't breed it out of us.
~ William James, in Memories and Studies (1911). XI. The Moral Equivalent of War (Speech Delivered at Stanford University; 1906)

Before I would do you any damage, I had rather my soul should broil in hell-fire.
~ Captain William Kidd, (1701).

This country loves guns so much, we have a SaladShooter.
~ Bill Maher

Banning gun shows to reduce violent crime will work about as well as banning auto shows to reduce drunken driving.
~ Bill McIntire

Why do men behave so much more violently than women do, if there is no male "violence chromosome"?
~ William S. Pollack, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood (1998).

Everywhere, every minute -- like the air you breathe -- there is the threat of violence lurking beneath the surface. Unlike the air, it is heavy, massive, as oppressive as molasses. It permeates every second of everyone's existence -- the potential threat of sudden, ferocious annihilation. It is as gray and swift and unpredictable as a shark and just as unvocal. There is no letup from it -- ever.
~ Bill Sands, My Shadow Ran Fast (1964).

Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act IV, scene iv

I have supped full with horrors.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act V, scene v

It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act III, scene iv

These violent delights have violent ends.
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene vi

We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I. Act II, scene iii

We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act V, scene i

Violence, indeed, is the child of suppression.
~ William Allen White, Editorial in The Emporia Gazette (27 July 1922). To an Anxious Friend

Nonviolence is not a thing that comes easily. You have to learn how to be nonviolent.
~ Betty Williams, PeaceJam Foundation (4 July 1995). An Interview with Betty Williams

And for anyone to think that murder can be resolved by murdering, it's ridiculous. I mean, we look at all of the wars that we have throughout other countries and other nations, and all it does is -- this violence, all it does is engender violence.
~ Stanley Tookie Williams, Interview in Democracy Now! (30 November 2005). A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams from his San Quentin Cell

America adores violence, yes. It thrills at big fires and explosions.
~ William Carlos Williams, from In the American Grain (1925). Jacataqua

It must take a stern courage to break violently into the house of life.
~ Alice Muriel Williamson, The Barn Stormers: Being The Tragical Side Of A Comedy (1897). Chapter XXIV

Avoid revolution or expect to get shot. Mother and I will grieve, but we will gladly buy a dinner for the National Guardsman who shot you.
~ Dr. Paul Williamson

Birth is violent, whether it be the birth of a child or the birth of an idea.
~ Marianne Williamson, quoted in Words of Women Quotations for Success (1997).

Violence is a tool of the ignorant.
~ Clerow "Flip" Wilson