"It is easy to kill when you don't see your victim"
- Friedrich Durrenmatt
About this Quote
This quote by Friedrich Durrenmatt speaks to the power of range and detachment in enabling people to devote acts of violence. When we are gotten rid of from the repercussions of our actions, it is much easier to overlook the suffering of our victims. This is especially true when we don't actually see individuals we are hurting. We can distance ourselves from the truth of the scenario and pretend that our victims are not real individuals with realities. This quote functions as a suggestion that we should constantly know the consequences of our actions and that we need to never forget that our victims are real people with realities. We should never enable ourselves to become so separated from the truth of our actions that we can devote acts of violence without feeling any remorse.
"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings"