Home / Topics / Destruction Quotes

Destruction Quotes

Browse 2797 quotes about Destruction.

Destruction Quotes

“In the background lurks the scourge of international terrorism. There are people exercising power in a few countries and leading political factions in others who seem to be moved by narrow, brutal and irrational impulses. Their view of their own self-interest is so blinkered as to leave no space for purely human values, for peaceful negotiation or for economic advancement. They are bent on the destruction of the established order and of civilised ways of doing business. They must never be allowed to succeed.”

“Altruism is masked self-interest. Aggressive self-interest is a masked urge to self-destruction.”

Self Interest Destruction Urges Aggressive Altruism Self Interest Self Destruction

Book:The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God

“With the more endowed nations constrained by their own higher technological capacity for self-destruction as well as by self interest, war may have become a luxury that only the poor peoples of this world can afford.”

World Wells May War Self Nations Interest Poor This World Higher Capacity Destruction Luxury Technological Poor People Self Interest Self Destruction

Book:The Grand Chessboard

Source: The Grand Chessboard

“Contrast is the intangible ingredient, the catalyst that makes life exciting. The human mind rejects monotony even to the point of destroying itself in madness, when monotony is forced upon it for too long. ... Contrast gives variety and interest, whether it be in the universe as a whole with its light and darkness, its ceaseless motion and constant change, its creation of worlds and destruction of others.”

“No one is wise enough, no nation is important enough, no human interest is precious enough, to justify the wholesale destruction and murder which constitute the science of war.”

Humans Important War Enough Nations Peace Interest Wise Destruction Murder Justify Wholesale

Book:I Speak for Myself: The Autobiography of John Haynes Holmes

Source: I Speak for Myself: The Autobiography of John Haynes Holmes

“Did it ever occur to you, that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires - if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical?”

Ifs Men Desire Interest Views Business Conflict Destruction Trade Practicals Irrational Conflict Of Interest Personal Desire

Book:Ayn Rand Novel Collection

Source: Ayn Rand Novel Collection

“Any practice of business which would dominate the country by its own selfish interest is a destruction of equality of opportunity. Government in business, except in emergency, is also a destruction of equal opportunity and the incarnation of tyranny through bureaucracy.”

Country Government Opportunity Interest Practice Equal Destruction Selfish Tyranny Bureaucracy Emergencies Incarnation Equal Opportunity Equality Of Opportunity Selfish Interest

Author:Herbert Hoover

“In the past, destruction of your neighbour might have been considered a victory, but today we are all interdependent. We live in a global economy; we face problems like climate change that affect us all. The 7 billion human beings alive today belong to one human family. In the context that others' interests are in our interest and our interest is in their interest, the use of force is self-destructive.”

“Are we not concerned, for example, by the growing danger related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology? All of this poses a clear threat to the world, to the region. However, we have obvious points of convergence that are related to our interests.”

“It [9/11] transcended the political and moved into the metaphysical. There was a kind of cosmic, demonic quality of mind at work here, which refused to have any interest in dialogue and political organization and persuasion. This was bloody-minded destruction for no other reason than to do it.”

Mind Kind Reason Political Interest Quality Destruction Organization Moved Dialogue Cosmic Bloody Persuasion Metaphysical Demonic

Author:Edward Said

“Russia has a long-term interest in Syria. Israel by and large does not have an issue with those long-term interests that Russia has in Syria. Israel has an issue with an Iranian regime that is trying to establish this land bridge, and that openly calls and actively works for Israel's destruction. And if you ask a hundred Israelis what they want to see in Syria, you're going to get 150 answers.”

Trying Interest Destruction Syria Iranian

Author:Ron Dermer

“Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping toward destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interest of everyone hangs on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.”

Source: Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses

“if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death.”

Ifs Interest Accepting Destruction If I Could Assured

Author:Arthur Conan Doyle

“He didn't want her; he wanted me. Well, you know how it is." Dalgliesh did know. This, after all, was the commonest, the most banal of personal tragedies. You loved someone. They didn't love you. Worse still, in defiance of their own best interests and to the destruction of your peace, they loved another. What would half the world's poets and novelists do without this universal tragicomedy?”

Knows World Want Wells Stills Wanted Interest Half Know How Love You Poet Destruction Universal Tragedy Novelists Defiance Personal Tragedy

Book:P. D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries: Cover Her Face, A Mind to Murder, Unnatural Causes, Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower, and Death of an Expert Witness

Source: P. D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries: Cover Her Face, A Mind to Murder, Unnatural Causes, Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower, and Death of an Expert Witness

“. . . the upsurge of Spirit is the only plausible way to stop the ecological destruction of our planet. Even people who have no interest in a communal solution to the distortions in our lives will have to face up [to] this ecological reality. Unless we transform our relationship with nature, we will destroy the preconditions for human life on this planet.”

People Way Humans Reality Faces Spirit Interest Our Lives Planets Solutions Destruction Human Life Contemplation Our Relationship Our Planet Distortion Ecological Plausible

Book:Spirit Matters

Source: Spirit Matters

“The fight against Germany has now been waged for months by every Jewish community, on every conference, in all labor unions and by every single Jew in the world. There are reasons for the assumption that our share in this fight is of general importance. We shall start a spiritual and material war of the whole world against Germany. Germany is striving to become once again a great nation, and to recover her lost territories as well as her colonies. But our Jewish interests call for the complete destruction of Germany.”

“Did it ever occur to you, that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical? There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked, that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't.”

Ifs Men Reality Lying Desire Values Given Interest Views Business Sacrifice Conflict Destruction Absolutes Aim Trade Threat Practicals Deceit Irrational Conflict Of Interest Personal Desire

Author:Ayn Rand

“Not only the priceless heritage of our fathers, of our seamen, of our Empire builders is being thrown away in a war that serves no British interests - but our alliance leader Stalin dreams of nothing but the destruction of that heritage of our fathers?”

War Dream Father Interest Leader Destruction British Thrown Empires Heritage Our Father Alliances Priceless Builder Seamen

Book:John Amery Speaks, &: England and Europe

Source: John Amery Speaks, &: England and Europe

“Everything is interconnected. My interest is linked to everyone else's. Our survival and future are linked. Therefore the destruction of your so-called enemy is actually the destruction of your self.”

Self Interest Enemy Survival Destruction Linked Interconnected

Author:Dalai Lama