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I think in the corridors of power these dangerous kinds of orders are issued in a much more vague way, passed down two or three levels of command before they're given to the assassin.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

It wasn't until two or three years ago that I actually learned that in the end he actually did kill someone. But that was a choice that he faced: to kill or be killed.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Nero may have understood how to tune his cithern, but he disgraced his imperial office both by slackening and by tightening the strings.

What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?

In many instances, order is apprehended first of all by the senses.

The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them.

In the military, as in any organization, giving the order might be the easiest part. Execution is the real game.

It was bloody difficult getting followed around all the time.