Schlock: You could save a lot of time by just telling me what you want.
Petey: If time was all I wanted to save, I would be doing a great many things very differently.
Petey: If time was all I wanted to save, I would be doing a great many things very differently.
"I did it... I DID IT!"
— Ozymandias, Watchmen
Batman: You grabbed power!
Lord Batman: And with that power, we've made a world where no eight-year-old boy will ever lose his parents, because of some punk with a gun!
[Dramatic Pause]
Batman: ... You win.
Lord Batman: And with that power, we've made a world where no eight-year-old boy will ever lose his parents, because of some punk with a gun!
[Dramatic Pause]
Batman: ... You win.
"[The Gatekeepers] were suppressing technology, per a treaty with the Pa'anuri. It was appeasement, writ large, for hundreds of thousands of years. Their clone-and-interrogate operation probably killed the equivalent of the entire population of the galaxy a few thousand times over. But you and I are able to stand here and argue the morality of it, so on some level it must have worked, right?"
— Petey, Schlock Mercenary
In all the years Rome has stood, [the Gates of War] have been closed only twice. While I was Emperor, the Senate ordered them shut three times.
— The Victories of Augustus the God
"Though I abhor the sanguinary ferocity of the late Jacobins in France, yet their principles... are the most consonant with my ideas of reason, and the nature of man, of any that I have met with."
— John Thelwall
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
— Barry Goldwater
"I did it. Because I've come to realize what many people in the Republic have come to realize, that the Jedi are the ones responsible for this War. That we've so lost our way that we have become villains in this conflict, that we are the ones that should be put on trial, all of us! And my attack on the Temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become: an army fighting for the dark side, fallen from the Light that we once held so dear. THIS REPUBLIC IS FAILING! It's only a matter of time."
— Barriss Offee, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Isana: How can you live with yourself?
Gaius Sextus: I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look, wife of my son, mother of my heir, at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them—because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them.
Gaius Sextus: I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look, wife of my son, mother of my heir, at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them—because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them.
"I am baffled by critics who accept Mitth'raw'nuruodo's account of his discussion with Palpatine about the Far Outsiders, yet refuse to revise their opinions about either man. They ignore what Mitth'raw'Nuruodo reported Palpatine believed: that the weak Republic would be defeated by the Vong, and had to be reforged into an orderly, militarized society able to resist them. They refuse to consider the possibility that the Empire's apparent brutality and ruthlessness were necessary parts of preparing for that terrible war. Why do they refuse to do so? Because that would lead them to the only logical conclusion: that Palpatine was right."
— Lenang O'Pali, The Essential Guide to Warfare
Captain Picard: Maxwell was right. Those ships weren't carrying scientific equipment, were they? A 'research' station within arm's reach of three Federation sectors? Cargo ships running with high energy subspace fields that jam sensors?
Gul Macet: If you believed the transport ship carried weapons, why didn't you board it as Maxwell requested?
Captain Picard: I was here to protect the peace, a peace I firmly believe is in the interests of both our peoples. But if I had attempted to board that ship... I am quite certain that you and I would not be sitting here now. And that ships on both sides would be arming for war... Take a message to your leaders, Gul Macet. We'll be watching.
Gul Macet: If you believed the transport ship carried weapons, why didn't you board it as Maxwell requested?
Captain Picard: I was here to protect the peace, a peace I firmly believe is in the interests of both our peoples. But if I had attempted to board that ship... I am quite certain that you and I would not be sitting here now. And that ships on both sides would be arming for war... Take a message to your leaders, Gul Macet. We'll be watching.
"You see, I've watched you work — come to understand your motivation. You think the only way is to kill them all — leave nothing behind — and you may be right."
— Samuel Haydn to the Doom Slayer, Doom (2016)
Dr. Raymond Cocteau: John Spartan, this display of barbaric behavior was unacceptable even in your time!
John Spartan: Yeah. But it worked. When a man like Phoenix has a gun to your head, ten seconds is nine and a half seconds longer than you live.
John Spartan: Yeah. But it worked. When a man like Phoenix has a gun to your head, ten seconds is nine and a half seconds longer than you live.
"Lord of Admirals. So very many years have we battled. My finest opponent, the Mantle accepts all who live fiercely, who defend their young, who build and struggle and grow, and even those who dominate - as humans have dominated; cruelly, without wisdom. But for all of us, there is a time like this... And for you, that time is now. Know this, relentless enemy, killer of our children. Lord of Admirals. Soon we will face the enemy you have faced... and we are afraid."
— The Didact, Halo
"When one world fell after another, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction, nobody was concerned over why they were originally built."
— Dr. Catherine Halsey, Halo
Their ways are considered extreme — and they would be the first to agree. Extremism is sanctioned, they would say. Extremism is required. Are the enemies of the Imperium concerned with moderation? With liberalism? Of course not!
— Euclidium by Simon Spurrier (contained in Warhammer 40,000: What Price Victory)
"Could you burn down people — women and children — even if you knew they had become monsters? The Baron can. The Baron has. I respect him for that, but I don't want to be him. No sane man would."
— Master Payne on
Baron Wulfenbach, Girl Genius
Baron Wulfenbach, Girl Genius