Pentti Linkola Quotes

Many who would not take the last cookie would take the last lifeboat.

At that time I had not yet been taught the doctrine I was later to learn so hurriedly in the Lager: that man is bound to pursue his own ends by all possible means, while he who errs but once pays dearly

If I have to remove one to save ten, I'll do it in a heartbeat. If I have to waterboard somebody to save a thousand people, I'll do it in a heartbeat.

A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.

What each man feared would happen to himself, did not trouble him when he saw that it would ruin another.

Hey, any time you're throwing bodies over board it is to save yourself.

Who wills the ends must not shrink from the means.

The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.

People always choose self-preservation over the greater good, most of the time, with the belief that self-preservation is the greater good.

Not everyone can stand up and be a hero, Princess. Some prefer to surrender to the inevitable and salve their consciences with the gift of survival.

Most people are weak and frightened, and run from anything which could be upsetting. Most people, also, are takers and not givers.

I killed one man to save 100,000.

I was scared. Do you know what it's like to hold someone else's life in your hands? It's like playing God. Can you think of anything scarier than that?

When your house is on fire, you cant be bothered with the neighbors. Or, as we say in Chess, if your King is under attack you don't worry about losing a Pawn on the Queen's side

Only in a true life or death scenario can you have mental clearness to know that you cannot feel guilty for surviving.

One of the things is that in times of severe disorder, you can't worry about the dead, only the living.

I realized early that unless you're willing to kill the innocent, you can't win.

You think I'm gonna feel better eatin' a carrot? Get a grip. There's two idiots out there trying to kill me, and you think I'm gonna waste my last breath on a vegetable? (Lula)

If a building is falling on you, you don't concern yourself with the horn of an approaching car. You deal with the most immediate peril first. That's survival.

If there were a button I could press, I would sacrifice myself without hesitating, if it meant millions of people would die.

When the ship is going down we trouble ourselves little enough about the style of the cabin furniture.

To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.

Ordinarily, everything we do is in our self-interest. Everything.

He knew. I could see it in his face. Look, if someone gets infected you've got between ten and twenty seconds to kill them. It might be your brother or your sister or your oldest friend. It makes no difference. And just so you know where you stand - if it happens to you, I'll do it in a heartbeat.

People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.