Aravind Adiga Quotes

The only way to the top is killing and greed. Okay, I'm kidding. But killing helps.

The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money.

What right have the rulers of nations to unsheath the sword of destruction, and to let loose the demons of desolation upon mankind, whenever caprice or pride, ambition or avarice, shall prescribe?

No matter how healthy a man's morals may be when he enters the White House, he comes out again with a pock-marked soul.

Ambition fortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates with deception, cajolery, and violence, it is the action of impurity upon impurity.

I did not set out to be beloved and just, only strong." 'A King can be better than that," the Prince insisted. "And so we all begin, determined to better our fathers' performances, knowing we can change the very nature of humanity, make it better, cleaner. But then daggers strike in the night, and peasants revolt, and all manner of atrocities become a necessity as breakfast. Only Princes believe in the greater good. Kings know there is only Reign, and all things may be committed in its holy name.

We want his power more than his purity.

Any man would be forsworn to gain a kingdom.

The danger inherent in all force grows stronger when it is likely to gain success, for then it becomes temptation.

Success only feeds the appetite of aggression.

Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skilful corruption. You must either cut your way through these masses of men like a cannon ball, or steal among them like a plague.

I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.

As Angelo discovered in Measure for Measure, nothing corrupts like virtue.

Can you do that?” Thomas asked. “Huh?” “Kill someone three times.” “I’d figure out a way.

Let us make war on the phrase 'violence doesn't solve anything.' It is a lie, and anyone who utters it cannot be taken morally seriously.

People who live in an age of corruption are witty and slanderous; they know that there are other kinds of murder than by dagger or assault; they also know that whatever is well said is believed.

Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children's lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like... But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen

Whatever goal, man has reached is due to his originality plus his brutality

I am the king of the world. I'm a man's man.

Power won by crime no one ever yet turned to a good purpose.

Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.

The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.

But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.

Anyone in this world can have the power of life and death over someone else. It's horrible, but true. All you need to do is take it. And once you have -- there is no going back. (The Killer's Cousin)