Torture Quotations

I am an artist, and I understand the pros and cons of being an artist, and the pressures of being an artist, and how much being an artist can be torture to people around you; you know, you friends and your family and how material you can be, and how it's hard to take criticism and all the things like that.

I hate wearing anything tight. A corset is my idea of torture.

We used to flock to watch gladiators, public torture and executions. In more recent times, our appetite for mortal violence has been sublimated in sports, photorealistic video games, film and literature.

I torture my mother with all my problems, that poor woman.

When love grows diseased, the best thing we can do is to put it to a violent death. I cannot endure the torture of a lingering and consumptive passion.

Because animals are property, we consider as "humane treatment" that we would regard as torture if it were inflicted on humans.

Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture.

One of the techniques terrorists employ is to allege torture and mistreatment when they are captured, regardless of whether it is true.

Acknowledgment of torture is not accountability for it.

Surely martyrs, irrespective of the special phase of the divine idea for which they gladly give up their bodies to torture and to death, are the truest heroes of history.

The whole macho thing has to be reexamined. Because in my view, the Bush administration was weak, not strong. To engage in a policy of torture is a weak policy. Because ultimately, it encourages the terrorists. It undermines our own values. It corrupts our system. And it doesn't get good intelligence.

I crave ideas, and when an idea hits me, it grips me and it tortures me until I master it.

Our laws are a reflection of our culture. Our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures. And we as a society believe all God's creatures should be treated humanely.

To torture a man you have to know his pleasures.

There are nations, where people live in captivity, fear and silence. I believe, one day from prison camps and torture cells and from exile the leaders of freedom will emerge. The world should stand with those oppressed people until the day of their freedom finally arrives.

The purpose of torture is not getting information. It's spreading fear.

When we go to war, our politicians will be guided by our popular will. And if we believe that torture 'got' bin Laden, then we will be more prone to accept the view that a good 'end' can justify brutal 'means.'

The suffering caused by the terrorists is the real torture.

For a woman, forty is torture, the end.

Why do we have to have violence, torture, brutality in crime dramas every time we turn on television? Any new crime drama is going to have, sooner or later, a lot of torture and nasty things that make people flinch. Lots of young people I know shrink and flinch from that kind of thing on television, so I think showing it is a mistake.

Shamefully we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management, U.S. management.

I am a Muslim. I am born to Muslim parents. I have a Muslim son. I have been imprisoned and witnessed torture for my previous understanding of my religion.

I'm not afraid of hard work. I like it! It's the other bit - the not working - I find more problematic. If I'm not busy, I just get antsy. I've been this way since I was a child. Sitting still is like torture for me.

When you have girl children they torture you!

I really believe that if we were from another planet, and we sat down to put our heads together on torture experiments, the concept of sticking a needle into someone and sucking their blood out would probably qualify as a pretty good one.

When you have girl children, they torture you! If at any moment of the day I ever think I'm remotely cool at all, which is hardly ever, I have two daughters who make sure that never happens. They say, 'Mom, you didn't really wear that?' And I say, 'Yes, and pretty much everyone saw it.'

There is no need for use of torture instruments such as ankush for controlling the elephants. We can do it with the help of verbal commands.

I am very lucky that I get to go to work and laugh all day for my day job, and then go home and torture my artistic self.

What's surprising is that the people who fought against torture here are the communists.

It is also asserted that the election settled the matters of the war and the torture of prisoners. These are dead issues that no longer need be addressed.

So, if I give any credit, besides giving all credit to God, for being totally healthy, it's just my workout and how much torture I put my body through in the offseason.

Well, to the people who pray for me to not only have an agonising death, but then be reborn to have an agonising and horrible eternal life of torture, I say, 'Well, good on you. See you there.'

This work is a torture on the rump but a joy to the heart.

My style of singing has always been referred to 'soul' singing when it fact it's more influenced by English R&B Blues Shouting. I'm closer to Led Zeppelin as a vocalist than to Ella Fitzgerald. It was torture dealing with major labels.

There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience.

As soon as I started to realize that I could make a living playing professional soccer, I went to that place where I could torture myself because I knew it would make me better for the championship game.

I just made the decision that I was going to try comedy, and if didn't work, then I knew it didn't work. Then I would go back and do whatever. But at least I wouldn't torture myself the rest of my life, wondering whatever would have happened.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord's mercy motivates us to do better.

I've been water-boarded, and I speak from experience, and it's torture.

There is no question that US interrogations have resulted in deaths. High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable.

There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths. High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable.

Until you will stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight, ... We are at war, and I am a soldier and now you too will taste the reality of this situation.

Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier.

What he wasn't sentenced to was torture and rape, and that's what this case is about.

Unknown to her the rigid rule, the dull restraint, the chiding frown, the weary torture of the school, the taming of wild nature down.

The act of love strongly resembles torture or surgery.

I will not be tortured, I tear torture out of myself by torturing you!

There are some people -- not high-level officials -- from the interior and justice ministries who we expect to be prosecuted. Different kinds of torture happened, from beating to mental torture. These people had no right to torture anybody.

The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture ought below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe.

The REAL ID Act would, among other things, permit immigration judges to deny asylum based solely on an applicant's demeanor, ... As health professionals who also do asylum evaluations, we fear that this is likely to lead immigration judges (who are not adequately trained in the symptoms of torture survivors) to deny asylum to those who need it most.

There is compelling evidence suggesting that U.S. personnel have committed acts against detainees amounting to torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.

If something is good, you must torture it mercilessly until it is either dead or great.

Once you have lived with another, it is a great torture to have to live alone.

If it's torture flying one airline and [yours] is a pleasant experience, it certainly helps your revenue.

Many of the countries highlighted in this report have absolutely abysmal records of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees. The United States government must do all it can to end the global culture of torture. But real change can only occur if the Bush Administration not only admits that its own policies perpetuate torture and ill treatment, but also cleans house and stops warehousing detainees in countries with shameful human rights records.

Secretary Rumsfeld takes the extraordinary position in his brief that ordering torture was 'within the scope of his employment' as Secretary of Defense. Especially in light of recent finds that no one at senior levels has been held to account for gross acts of torture and abuse of detainees, this is a remarkable abdication of the responsibility of command.

One reason I voted for him and voted against Alberto Gonzalez (for attorney general) is that Gonzalez could not find the words to say that torture is illegal and that the President is not above the law. Roberts could.

My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.

My heart goes out to people that have loved ones that go missing and are never found, because it was torture for us for those several days when he was missing,

Obviously, he wasn't an outstanding prisoner. That's why he was denied parole four times, but there's certainly nothing about his conduct (in prison) to indicate torture and murder.

Nicole showed up to meet me in an airport once wearing a sweatsuit, with a leopard-print neck pillow tied around her neck, an 'I Love L.A.' cap, and her hair in pigtails, ... I think she was doing it to torture me.

On March 5, 2011, protesters stormed the Egyptian state security headquarters. In real time, activists shared their discoveries on Twitter as they moved through a building that had until recently been one of the Mubarak regime's largest torture facilities.

I have determined that American lives can be saved by ending the ongoing stonewalling by these two suspects, who have clearly orchestrated a campaign that endangers U.S. intelligence agents' lives. The Weekly Standard has opened my eyes to the fact that my being previously unprepared to torture is deeply immoral, given the American lives that I believe can be saved by the urgently needed information Cheney and Rove possess.

But all they want to doIs tie the poem to a chair with ropeAnd torture a confession out of it.They begin beating it with a hoseTo find out what it really means.

But all they want to do Is tie the poem to a chair with rope And torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose To find out what it really means.

I have lodged a complaint with the court to investigate the crime against my client and torture against him during and after his arrest.

If only meat weren't so delicious! Sure, meat may pave the way to a heart attack. Yes, factory farms torture animals. Indeed, producing a single hamburger patty requires more water than two weeks of showers. But for those of us who are weak-willed, there's nothing like a juicy burger.

If Amnesty has concerns about torture then they will know better than a minister in Whitehall what is really going on, and we should listen to their concerns.

He finds the practices that have been publicized aberrant like everyone else does and is deeply opposed to using torture as an interrogation technique. He was concerned that the amendment, however, would put at risk some of our undercover officers by making them subject to two sets of laws governing their conduct.

We're not going to torture people, but I don't believe there is a right to a painless execution, and certainly there is no guarantee. In the real world, nothing is 100 percent.

Jordan's General Intelligence Department, prisons and ordinary police stations all have known records of abuse. By seeking Jordanian promises to treat these returned persons differently, the U.K. is confirming that the risk of torture continues.

I think that anyone who comes upon a Nautilus machine suddenly will agree with me that its prototype was clearly invented at some time in history when torture was considered a reasonable alternative to diplomacy

It is a moral imperative that we adopt that amendment on the defense bill. Otherwise the $21 million in this bill for victims of torture is a joke and a sham.

Our report finds that there is a gap between policies leadership says it respects on paper, and behavior it actually tolerates in practice. That's not a way to stop torture from occurring, and it's not a winning strategy in the fight against terror.

Our laws are reflection of our culture, and in our culture it's not acceptable to torture small animals,

that defined torture and showed that these acts were not torture and that these prisoners were not subject to the Geneva Conventions.

My parents were angry, but they were relieved that I was in good condition. They had been afraid the Russians would torture me. They told me not to do it again!

Looking back, I didn't have the patience to work in fashion. I like women so much, but I was never qualified to torture them in photo shoots. You have to be really tough and brutal.

I still have many years left in me, if I still have a job, but that's what I'll tell my son when he's old enough to torture me with painful questions.

The amount and depth of the torture that's been alleged and corroborated leaves no doubt in my mind that what we saw was a staged interrogation,

WikiLeaks exposed corruption, war crimes, torture and cover-ups. It showed that we were lied to about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; that the U.S. military had deliberately hidden information about systematic torture and civilian casualties, which were much higher than reported.

We need full disclosure by our government. If, in fact, people are being moved from a jurisdiction where torture is illegal to a jurisdiction where torture is permissible, that seems to me to be wholly contrary to international law.

We had to learn in just six weeks what geishas spend their whole lives learning. There were seven torture rooms, ... But we were lucky that Kaori and Ken were there to keep an eye on us to make sure we were doing it properly. Please forgive us if we did anything wrong.

We're not talking about torture in the abstract, but the real thing. U.S. personnel and officials may be criminally liable, and a special prosecutor is needed to investigate.

This stuff on enemy combatants, the Bush Administration has fought like a tiger to avoid having to produce any evidence to a judge to show why somebody is locked up in perpetuity. Another example of that is the torture scandal.

Rolling torture wagons for nature's most dignified creature.

President Bush on Monday defended U.S. interrogation of terrorists, saying 'We do not torture.' He added, 'We freedom electrocute.'

In the future, torture will once again become the recreational sport of the rich.

When you go card dead its torture just sitting there.

The torture of being the unseen object, and the constantly observed subject.

Just for the record, she still loves you. She wouldn't bother to torture you if she didn't.

Torture is torture and humiliation is humiliation only when you choose to suffer.

To put the point sharply: If an informer in the French underground who sent a friend to the torture chambers of the Gestapo was equally a victim, then there can be no right or wrong in life that I understand.

I don't torture myself.

The new CIA torture report is 6 million pages long. It's almost as long as a George Clooney pre-nup.

While no one wants to see what's on the photos or videos, they will play an essential role in holding our government leaders accountable for the torture that's happened on their watch.

We were shocked to find so many credible accounts of torture and severe ill-treatment by police officers.

We have been demanding that particularly in the case of minors you must have a time-bound system. Because of witnesses changing, the victims do not want justice because of the torture that she undergoes.

This report by the U.S. government provides a thorough review of today's human rights practices around the globe, except for one glaring omission -- its own record. The United States government considers itself a moral leader on human rights issues, but its record of indefinite and arbitrary detentions, secret 'black sites' and outsourced torture in the 'war on terror' turns it from leader to human rights violator.

We knew The Torture Question would be a timely subject.