A terrorist, I think, is simply another kind of pornographer. The pornographer pretends he is disgusted by his work; the terrorist pretends he is uninterested in the means. The ends, they say, are what they care about. But they are both lying. Ernst loved his pornography; Ernst worshiped the means. It is never the ends that matter -- it is only the means that matter. The terrorist and the pornographer are in it for the means. The means is everything to them. The blast of the bomb, the elephant position, the Schlagobers and blood -- they love it all. Their intellectual detachment is a fraud; their indifference is feigned. They both tell lies about having ‘higher purposes.’ A terrorist is a pornographer. John Irving
Some Similar Quotes
  1. To love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed. - Cassandra Clare
  2. If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. - Carl Sagan
  3. Study, along the lines which the theologies have mapped, will never lead us to discovery of the fundamental facts of our existence. That goal must be attained by means of exact science and can only be achieved by such means. The fact that man, for... - Thomas A. Edison
  4. It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down. It is not the houses. It is the spaces between the houses. It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist. - James Fenton
  5. [H]e initially conceived of Olivier as a man of the greatest promise destroyed by a fatal flaw, the unreasoning passion for a woman dissolving into violence, desperately weakening everything he tried to do. For how could learning and poetry be defended when it produced such... - Iain Pears
More Quotes By John Irving
  1. It´s natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You can't interfere with people you love any more than you're supposed to interfere with...
  2. If you care about something you have to protect it — If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.
  3. My life is a reading list.
  4. It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
  5. It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.
Related Topics