I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake.

I would rather save the life of one citizen than kill a thousand enemies.

I’d rather be dead than so suspicious I can’t trust anybody.

I would rather be dead.

Better be killed than frightened to death.

Better to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.

I don't want to kill anybody. I am passionately opposed to killing, but I'm even more passionately fond of freedom. The freedom of Dr. Pauling and of myself expressing our opinions freely on any subject, however broad, however far removed of our proper competence, but particularly, to be able to express our opinions in the fields we really know; this would not be possible in Russia.

One would much rather that twenty guilty persons should escape the punishment of death, than that one innocent person should be condemned and suffer capitally.

I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward

I never shot a deer. I've never shot anything in my life. I never hunted. I'm just not that type of guy. But there's no doubt in my mind that I would have killed to win. That really scares me sometimes. Right now I think about it, and I get little goose bumps. I would have done anything - absolutely anything - to win. In a war, maybe that's what happens. It was our society against their society.

I'd rather ten guilty persons should escape, than one innocent should suffer.

It isn't a case of kill or be killed, instead it is a matter of killing in preference to allowing Death to win by default.

I'd rather die terrified than live forever.

According to Mona, you shouldn't kill people, because that drives you away from humanity. In order to justify killing, you have to make the victim your enemy. To justify any crime, you have to make the victim your enemy.