We're all killers at heart . . . . I have never taken anybody's life, but I have often read obituary notices with considerable satisfaction.
Interpretation
This quote suggests an underlying darkness in human nature, highlighting our morbid curiosity about death.
Clarence Darrow's quote reflects on the inherent tendencies within humans to be fascinated by death and destruction. Though he denies taking a life, he admits to experiencing satisfaction when reading about others' deaths, which points to a paradox in human morality, where empathy and curiosity can coexist with darker impulses.
In practice
In a philosophical debate about the morality of human nature.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to any attempt to organise peace on this planet
Contemporary industrial society is now characterised more than ever by "the need for stupefying work where it is no longer a real necessity."
The misery we inflict on sentient beings slackens our human evolution.
You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.
All those who try to unveil the mysteries always have tragic lives. At the end they are always punished.
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