“Men make war to get attention. All killing is an expression of self-hate.”

“All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.”

“Do all men kill all the things they do not love?Shylock: Hates any man the thing he would not kill?Bassanio: Every offence is not a hate at first.”

“Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.”

“The English language is shot through with idioms and expressions which allude to violence without inciting it, most of which pass without notice unless they're called to your attention. One of the most disingenuous moves in the incivility wars is to treat these expressions with a specious literalism; politics makes Freudians of us all. (205)”

“It’s too bad war gets all the attention; it’s too bad the plant is easier to see than the root.”