David Novak Quotes

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.

If you tie a man's hands there is nothing moral about his not committing murder.

The most effective way to gather intelligence and thwart terrorism can also be a direct route into morally repugnant terrain. A survey of the landscape of persuasion.

An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.

Evil is the interruption of a truth by the pressure of particular or individual interests.

Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.

No conditions justify torture.

Extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice, but I denounce political extremism, of the left or the right, based on duplicity, falsehood, fear, violence and threats when they endanger liberty.

We are America; we don't torture. And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train.

I'm pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people's bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.

You say: "Here are persons who are lacking in morality or religion," and you turn to the law. But law is force. And need I point out what a violent and futile effort it is to use force in the matters of morality and religion?

Most of the great results of history are brought about by discreditable means.

… he must deceive, misrepresent, leave false impressions … and trust to charm, loyalty and the result to make up for it…. A great man cannot be a good man.

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.

If you disapprove of violence, then you can't think there is any age when violence is appropriate.

I don't believe that there are two sides to a story when it's a matter of right versus wrong. It just doesn't work that way.

Propaganda replaces moral philosophy.

Let us reject the spirit of making proselytes to particular creeds by any other means than persuasion.

A just cause needs no interpreting. It carries its own case. But the unjust argument since it is sick, needs clever medicine.

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.

Do not listen to her," Alaric said. "She is going to tell you in some kind of code only the two of you will understand, because you are siblings, to call the police on your cell phone. But if you do that, I will kill you and dispose of your body in a place where no one will find it. The river, I think. Your doorman is so stupid, he won't notice if I leave this building carrying a body in a rolled-up carpet.

I like being moved. I don't like being pushed.

It's easier to scare someone than to persuade him.

Can a man who lies, cheats, steals, and sometimes does violence to other people be a man of honor? Kolabati looked into his eyes. "He can if he lies to liars, cheats cheaters, steals from thieves, and limits his violence to those who are violent.

The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach is lying for its own sake.