Treason Quotes

“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third — ['Treason!' cried the Speaker] — may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”
― Patrick Henry

“Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

“Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damages morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hung”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Raising the flag and singing the anthem are, while somewhat suspicious, not in themselves acts of treason.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

“To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life.

(Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)”
― Dorothy L Sayers, The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

“He started to estrange her...
And they became strangers
Who knew each other's heart,
So broken as they drifted apart.”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, Pierrot & Columbine

“It's not treason if you win.”
― Lisa Shearin, Bewitched & Betrayed

“He remained quiet, his movements studied. He was still not certain the intruder had gone and, if an attack was coming, he was going to be ready.”
― Jeffrey S. Stephens, Enemies Among Us

“Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided.”
― John Le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

“The United States has taught the world how to outsource war, which in turn has created a new breed of fighter. Trained in the armed services, they become highly efficient and highly paid killers.”
― Jeffrey S. Stephens, Enemies Among Us

“To question me once is a simple mistake, Lieutenant. Twice is treason. We execute traitors.”
― Terry Goodkind, Faith of the Fallen

“It is a human characteristic, which has been richly exploited in every era, that while hope of survival is still alive in a man, while he still believes his troubles will have a favorable outcome, and while he still has the chance to unmask treason or to save someone else by sacrificing himself, he continues to cling to the pitiful remnants of comfort and remains silent and submissive. When he has been taken and destroyed, when he has nothing more to lose, and is, in consequence, ready and eager for heroic action, his belated rage can only spend itself against the stone walls of solitary confinement. Or the breath of the death sentence makes him indifferent to earthly affairs.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle

“I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o'thousands dead on your account.”
― George R.R. Martin, Fire & Blood

“A successful coup ain't a treason.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Treacherous people do not last only memories of their treason last.
So will it last with emotions mixed, of love and hate for treacherous ones.”
― Amit Abraham

“He’d passed the longest night of his life locked in mortal combat with his ghosts, calling up and then disavowing twenty years of memories. He would banish that bitch from his heart if it meant cutting her out with his own dagger. And when at last he allowed himself to grieve, he did so silently and unwillingly, his tears hidden by the darkness, his rage congealing into a core of ice.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, Devil's Brood

“Gunnar:
'Vile words to use,
thou Valkyrie,
thou slayer of men,
and sword-hearted!"

Brynhild:
'If sword I had,
I would slay thee now,
for thy secret treason,
for thy sundered oaths!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún

“Treason is always a conspiracy; it’s too big a task for one man, and throughout history has been the work of groups.”
― Elizabeth Moon, Oath of Fealty

“Your treason and disloyalty start, against your own country and people, with your corruption, injustice, and dishonesty.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“[To Tsar Alexander I] Treason, your majesty, is a question of dates.”
― Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Prigord

“Treason is too narrowly defined to suit us. Our courts call it treason when a restaurant-keeper helps a German flier to escape, but nobody calls it treason when a congressman helps a touchy issue to escape "until after the elections are over." We hang a man for the first kind of treason; we reelect a man for the second.”
― E.B. White

“There were degrees of treason, and some could never be forgiven.”
― Alexander Freed, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

“Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
― John Harington

“They call it the theatre of war for a reason. Nearly all wars are manipulated or arranged. The people who die and suffer are mostly the extras in the production. Those are the soldiers and the citizens. While the main players, the main actors, secretly meet backstage sipping champagne.”
― Jack Freestone

“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there”
― J.D. Vance

“When your government speaks the language of your enemy, this means that your government has become the enemy!”
― Fady Asly, Utopias and Realities: A Colorful Journey Through Life

“later
my life will accuse me
of various treasons

not black enough
too black
eyes closed when they should have been open
eyes open when they should have been closed”
― Lucille Clifton, Good News About the Earth

“When describing the opposition, remaining true to the regime narrative, Sisi coined a new term: ‘The people of evil’ (BBC, 2016). The term started to gain currency in 2016, when popular opposition to the transfer of the two islands in the Red Sea, Tiran and Sanafir, from Egyptian to Saudi sovereignty became apparent. However, it first made an appearance during Sisi’s speech inaugurating the nee Suez Canal in 2015 (Armbrust, 2019, p. 223). Even though it was never explicitly defined, it became clear that Sisi used it to describe the opposition in general, with specific mention of those who doubted and criticized the regimes ‘achievements’ (RT, 2019). Sisi used a rhetoric that not only framed the opposition as evil but also framed the regime as good, and the conflict between them as an existential struggle between good and evil: a biblical image par excellence. The framing of the opposition as evil and treasonous was not only a rhetorical device but also laid down the foundation of mass repression.” Chapter “Genesis”, Pages 37-38”
― Maged Mandour, Egypt under El-Sisi: A Nation on the Edge

“On patriotism, I have very little political trust for people who love their country only when their preferred party is in power.”
― Criss Jami