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Quote#Truth

When I kill a man, I do it with my sword, but people like you don't…

Quote byRyūnosuke Akutagawa · 1892–1927

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "In a Bamboo Grove" (1922), translation by Jay Rubin, as quoted in The New Yale Book of Quotations, p. 12..

English (original)

When I kill a man, I do it with my sword, but people like you don't use swords. You gentlemen kill with your power, with your money, and sometimes just with your words: you tell people you're doing them a favor. True, no blood flows, the man is still alive, but you've killed him all the same. I don't know whose sin is greater—yours or mine.

— Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

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