Quote#Art
One to destroy, is murder by the law
Quote byEdward Young · 1683–1765
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Love of Fame (1725-1728), Satire VII, l. 55..
English (original)
One to destroy, is murder by the law; And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
— Edward Young
More from Edward Young
Life is the desert, life the solitude; Death joins us to the great majority.
Ah! what is human life? How, like the dial's tardy-moving shade, Day after day slides from us unperceiv'd! The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth; Too subtle is the movement to be seen; Yet soon the hour is up—and we are gone.
In records that defy the tooth of time.
Great let me call him, for he conquered me.
Creation sleeps! 'Tis as the general pulse Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause; An awful pause! prophetic of her end.
Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue.