On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts

hate, cupidity, vanity and the like, and are thus stimulants to crime,

no one can better assume the air of forgetfulness; let him not be trusted nevertheless; he is ready for any sort of cool deed; but when there is glory at the end of it, he is worthy of admiration in every sort of fury.

Deem me still a murderer, and drag me to untimely death. I make not an effort to dispel your illusion: I utter not a word to cure you of your sanguinary folly:

There are no circumstances under which murder cannot be the clearest and most primitive violation of God’s law, as reflected in all religious teachings and in people’s conscience. Tolstoy

This is the true and exact account of the Great Cigar Fraud, and the moral of it is this–that civilisation is founded upon abstractions.