We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
Hostage is a crucifying aloneness. It is a silent, screaming slide into the bowels of ultimate despair. Hostage is a man hanging by his fingernails over the edge of chaos, feeling his fingers slowly straightening. Hostage is the humiliating stripping away of every sense and fiber of body and mind and spirit that make us what we are. Hostage is a mutant creation filled with fear, self-loathing, guilt and death-wishing. But he is a man, a rare, unique and beautiful creation of which these things are no part.
—Brian Keenan (b.1950) Irish-British Former Hostage, Writer
Too many people in the American media have lost any concept of loyalty to their country—if they even consider it their country, rather than just their residence.
Yeah, that’s right, I’m playing the patriotism card. But not the way you think.
Our country is at war. And it’s a war in which victory absolutely depends on the Muslim world perceiving it as a war between the U.S and its allies on one side, and fanatical murderous terrorists on the other.
If it is ever perceived as a war against Islam, then we have lost. The world has lost.
So during such a difficult time, even people who think the Iraq War or even the whole war on terror is a horrible mistake still have an obligation of loyalty to the nation that offers them protection, prosperity, and freedom.
—Orson Scott Card (b.1951) American Author
If we like them, they’re freedom fighters … If we don’t like them, they’re terrorists. In the unlikely case we can’t make up our minds, they’re temporarily only guerrillas.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Expecting a carjacker or rapist or drug pusher to care that his possession or use of a gun is unlawful is like expecting a terrorist to care that his car bomb is taking up two parking spaces.
—Anonymous
Cruelty has a human heart, And jealousy a human face Terror, the human form divine, And secrecy, the human dress
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America;These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.
—Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) Anglo-American Essayist, Social Critic
This was not an act of terrorism, but it was an act of war.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
If you are a terror to many, then beware of many.
—Ausonius (c.309–392 CE) Latin Poet, Rhetorician
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
We are all hostages, and we are all terrorists. This circuit has replaced that other one of masters and slaves, the dominating and the dominated, the exploiters and the exploited. It is worse than the one it replaces, but at least it liberates us from liberal nostalgia and the ruses of history.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
The war on terrorism can never be won.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
For the barbarians were not only at our gates but within our skins. We were our own wooden horses, each one of us full of our own doom. ….these fanatics or those, or crazies or yours; but the explosions burst out of our very own bodies. We were both the bombers and the bombs. The explosions were our own evil – no need to look for foriegn explanations, though there was and is evil beyond our frontiers as well as within. We have chopped away our own legs, we engineered our own fall. And now we can only weep, at the last, for what we were too enfeebled, too corrupt, too little, too contemptable to defend.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
Neither dead nor alive, the hostage is suspended by an incalculable outcome. It is not his destiny that awaits for him, nor his own death, but anonymous chance, which can only seem to him something absolutely arbitrary. He is in a state of radical emergency, of virtual extermination.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
The big threat to America is the way we react to terrorism by throwing away what everybody values about our country—a commitment to human rights. America is a great nation because we are a good nation. When we stop being a good nation, we stop being great.
—Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) American Politician, Civil Rights Activist
Terrorism: deadly violence against humans and other living things. Usually conducted by government against its own people.”
—Indian Proverb
Any power must be an enemy of mankind which enslaves the individual by terror and force, whether it arises under the Fascist or the Communist flag. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded to the individual.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Tourists are terrorists with cameras. Terrorists are tourists with guns.
—Anonymous
We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others.
—Martin Luther King III (b.1957) American Human Rights Advocate
Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.
—Tony Blair (b.1953) British Statesman
If I were to be taken hostage, I would not plead for release nor would I want my government to be blackmailed. I think certain government officials, industrialists and celebrated persons should make it clear they are prepared to be sacrificed if taken hostage. If that were done, what gain would there be for terrorists in taking hostages?
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
Terrorism, like viruses, is everywhere. There is a global perfusion of terrorism, which accompanies any system of domination as though it were its shadow, ready to activate itself anywhere, like a double agent.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
Over time it’s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
—Edward R. Murrow (1908–65) American Journalist, Radio Personality
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