Quotes about Tyrannicide

Sidney Hook

If one shoots at a king, one must not miss.

Oliver Stone

I think that many people in history who had power were bumped off because they had power.

Irving Layton

A political leader worthy of assassination

Oriana Fallaci

I didn't want to kill a man. I'm not capable of killing a man. I wanted to kill a tyrant.

John Cooke

Tyrannicide: Tyranny is a crime.

Charles I had caused the death of his subjects with impunity and was called to account. However, the English Parliament did not know what specific crime the King had committed. Kings had executed people, guilty of crimes and otherwise, for centuries. For what could a king be accountable. Cooke developed the crime of Tyranny and drew up and presented the indictment for that. The King was found guilty and executed. This was the first time in legal history that a ruler was called to account for crimes committed against his own people. It became the foundation for many trials thereafter including that of Saddam Hussein in 2006.

Peter Kropotkin

I understand regicide as a means of obtaining vengeance for the ruin of our lives, but regicide as a means of obtaining political freedom I could never understand.

John Adams

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

John Adams

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

Bruce Sterling

A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs

Omer Bodson

I don’t mind dying now that I’ve killed Msiri. Thank God my death will not be in vain. I’ve delivered Africa from one of her most detestable tyrants.

Msiri was the brutal King of Katanga in the Congo. He killed any of his subjects who displeased him. Bodson, led a contingent of troops to attempt to capture and arrest Msiri. Fighting broke out and Bodson shot Msiri and was then mortally wounded himself.

John Milton

It is lawful and hath been held so through all ages for any one who have the power to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose and put him to death.

Tyrannicide Quotes