Execution Quotes

“If we balance intellectual contemplation and practical application, we can merge reflection with execution and navigate the unpredictable and challenging journey of life. ("Ruling the waves")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“I am memorializing
the just-barely-adults
(mostly boys, mostly less privileged)
who have died fighting wars that
for the most part
were not their own...
the families
who have had to go on without them...
those who gave their life to this country
by standing for our freedoms in non-wars--struggles--
struggles about race, religion,
gender, sexual orientation,
contraception and abortion rights,
the environment, eradication of global disease and world hunger,
the right to collectively bargain and unionize...
who paid the ultimate price
through their civil disobedience, protest, collective action,
or just by living in a way that was so challenging to others
that they were executed for it...
the ones
from whom we stole this land
and those whose lives we stole
to build it...
those who were just trying
to go to school, pray, shop, watch a movie, be,
when they were gunned down in a country
that loves its guns
far more than its people...
those who were killed for
driving while black,
walking while black,
talking while black,
sleeping while black.

On Decoration Day we are decorated
with their blood
and their memory”
― Shellen Lubin

“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

“When the business environment is competitive, it's often strategy and execution that makes the difference between winners and losers.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“The most trivial things create the most critical complications in any execution.”
― Harjeet Khanduja, How Leaders Decide: Tackling Biases and Risks in Decision Making

“Idly, I wonder what sort of execution Cardan might order. Maybe he'd strap me to some rocks and let the sea do the work. Nicasia would like that. If he's not in the mood, though, there's always beheading, hanging, exsanguination, drawn and quartered, fed whole to a riding toad...”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“What entertainment value is there in executions if not for the occasional surprise? Why does the public attend? For the unexpected! A condemned man who flails about, or launches into a final fiery tirade. But times are changing, indeed they are...”
― Fabien Vehlmann, Isle of 100,000 Graves

“As pragmatic as Kitan was in his daily means of execution, he had an inner drive that was starry-eyed and childlike.”
― Nick Oliveri, The Conjurer

“They left two nights later. They had each a passable saddle-horse and a rifle and blanket and they had a mule that carried provisions of dried corn and beef and dates. They rode up into the dripping hills and in the first light Brown raised the rifle and shot the boy through the back of the head. The horse lurched forward and the boy toppled backward, the entire foreplate of his skull gone and the brains exposed. Brown halted his mount and got down and retrieved the sack of coins and took the boy’s knife and took his rifle and his powderflask and his coat and he cut the ears from the boy’s head and strung them onto his scapular and then he mounted up and rode on. The packmule followed and after a while so did the horse the boy had been riding.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“I don't kill helpless women. But you're nothing close to that. And you can't swear by a soul you've no owning of, vampire.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Damned

“A shapeshifter's possession of a single card turned the beautiful, bewitching night into chaos.”
― S.L. Vela

“Alex heard a stirring in the Hall. Brian had arrived. They cleared a path for him, saluting with mighty cheers as their leader made his way to the stage up front. Alex met him there.
Brian looked good. His eyes were alert and alive, soaking in these final sights before the end. Alex could tell there had been no tears. At this deeply emotional moment, Alex felt an urge to hug his friend, or at least shake his hand, but human touch was anathema. He saluted.
“I’m glad you made it,” Alex said.
“You didn’t think I’d change my mind, did you?” Brian replied.
“Of course not. I knew you’d be here. You’re even early.”
“I think it’s best to arrive early for one’s execution, don’t you?”
― Rich Coffeen, The Discipling Of Mytra

“The execution of an idea creates change and change contributes to the evolution process.”
― Sukant Ratnakar, Quantraz

“Success can't exist unless you have execution. Your work should show progress.”
― Troy Sandidge, Strategize Up: The Simplified Blueprint To Scaling Your Business

“Had the whole human race, in the circles of some immense Colosseum gathered together to see Mrs. Cobbald executed it is certain that she would never have blinked an eyelid, or lapsed one hair's breadth from her fortitude.”
― John Cowper Powys, Weymouth Sands

“An accurate picture of the odds is important when you’re choosing a path. But once you’ve already made your choice, then you should switch into irrational optimism for the execution phase.”
― Annie Duke, How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices

“I looked up at the noose, and it looked to me as the praying hands of God. I was tired of lies and broken promises, and weary of the world...”
― Lioness DeWinter

“I hold no illusion of why I'm here. I know what's in store for me. I know that I am to die. Timothy and I have spoken of it often in the past couple of years, and I must willingly submit to what I was meant to do, the role I was literally born to play. Now, I understand why I have always been drawn to the Bible, although it seems so contrary to my true nature...

My surname is an omen, as well: St. John. As a youth, a new gypsy boy, I had always mocked it. As a dynamic young preacher, I embraced it. Now, as I lay here, waiting for the end, I accept it for the omen that it is.”
― Lioness DeWinter, Southern Cross

“...But I am the most horrified at the slim young man who is upon his knees, clad in the same white trousers as I, his long, black hair framing his face like soft, shining curtains as he rests his head on his clasped, shackled hands and prays.

"Brian," I sob, my anguish causing my voice to break. "I don't want you in this place..."

He raises his head and pulls me down beside him. His sightless eyes seem to look straight into mine.

"You aren't alone anymore, Obadiah," he says gently. I weep, and take him back against me the best that I can, with my shackled wrists, and we rest against one another...two vessels ready for the last journey.

"I couldn't let you go without me, 'Baddy," he says softly. "I'd never find a love like yours again, even if I lived for a million years! There is only one you. When a person is gifted with a love like this, it should be defended at all costs..."

I weep then, for real...for this precious child, who will pay the ultimate price for loving me...how he must love me, indeed...”
― Lioness DeWinter, Southern Cross

“The clerestories were soft with evening light. Through them, to the east, I saw something invisible from the road: a short gibbet. From it a bundle dangled, turning a little. A crow picked at it. At first I thought nothing because I could think nothing. Then I thought, So that’s what smells.”
― Betsy James, Listening at the Gate

“It gives me no pleasure to do this,’ said Sharrowkyn. ‘You are nothing to me, simply a rabid dog that needs to be put down.”
― Graham McNeill, Angel Exterminatus

“Even as she faced execution, Marie Antoinette's will to control her image, to manage it through her clothing, had not left her.”
― Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution

“The Damned Axe by Stewart Stafford

The axe decapitates a head,
Society's ills get quickly shed,
Can we trust what we don't see?
The masked executioner's decree.

A death by hacks couldn't be worse,
Carnifex of the jingling cutpurse,
Blood is spilt to slake the thirst,
In the name of God, the law comes first.

A pantomime of barbarity,
To lose one's head so publicly,
And then be held up mockingly,
The crowd disperses hastily.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Brahma is creativity, Vishnu is execution, Shiva is resilience. Imbibe these three for utmost excellence.”
― Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, Smiling Brahma

“But it's a tough thing, you see. It's so difficult being a merciful Queen.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie, Casting Shadows

“What had caused my sudden change of heart?

Then, I realized that I was not just mourning her.

There was a shift, a change, and it was all that Klenard needed. With no one to contest me, a new era was born. The kingdom can grow.

It was hope and I was frightened by it.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie, The Circle is Broken

“One noble died of treason, but there was always another who would continue plotting. Treason remains on the statute book, enshrined in law today, though not an oft used law. When we think of treason and tyrannical monarchs, Henry VIII is usually pretty high on the list. He redefined treason to be what he wanted it to be and, as a result, opened the doors to multitudes of treason trials and the depletion of the English nobility.”
― Helene Harrison, Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block

“He was awake; it seemed like a long time, all dressed, sitting deep in the armchair, small with a grey face. I stopped ast the room entrance in silence, swallowed my words, and thought that maybe he didn’t even go to sleep that night. His facial colour reminded me of a teacher, dying from cancer.
‘Grandpa, what’s wrong? What’s wrong with you? Mother is coming home, did you hear?’ I came closer and touched his hand. It was colder than usual, and the frost went down my back. ‘Do you hear me? What’s wrong with you?’ I asked, and he was silent.
Suddenly, I understood everything.”
(-- Angelika Regossi, “Love in Communism. A Young Woman’s Adult Story”. Chapter 5: University of Life)


“‘Let me tell you this way. In the academy, we were told to marry early, before we go on the first shift. My first shift starts in a few months in July. I shall be half a year under the water in the submarine, carrying nuclear weapons. They advise us to marry and to make children as soon as possible because who knows what will be on that shift. Also, I told you about the radiation. I know submariners’ who cannot make children because of the radiation on the ship,’ said Prohor.
‘How to explain to you, my girl? To make children, a man needs an erection but the radiation kills it. I am afraid until I reach the rank of admiral, I shall be impotent … unable to make children …,’ Prohor told sadly from his bed.”
(-- Angelika Regossi, “Love in Communism. A Young Woman’s Adult Story”. Chapter 6: Fiance from Submarine)


“So, it happened there; between the two biggest islands of two big enemies, Japan and the USSR.
‘Now I recall that Prohor praised that they can attack unexpectedly from a submarine, from under the water, with nuclear rockets.’ I was astonished that I knew all these things, which earlier had never interested me.”
(-- Angelika Regossi, “Love in Communism. A Young Woman’s Adult Story”. Chapter 7: Between Two Men)


“‘Do you remember what I told you before I died? You promised me to think big! My little star, if you think big, you will become big! Use my diamonds and the wall clock to become big! Dream big, Anfisa—and you will be more than just a wife to a man.
‘But remember, you have to take diamonds and the clock outside the USSR, where they value these things.’ I heard my grandfather’s voice live, close, but I didn’t see him.”
(-- Angelika Regossi, “Love in Communism. A Young Woman’s Adult Story”. Chapter 8: Earner Marriage No. 1)”
― Angelika Regossi

“Every accomplishment starts with: A choice to be chosen; A decision to be decided, &
An action plan to be executed.”
― Willbur Glenn Colaco, Drops of Wisdom: Applying Ancient Words of Wisdom in Today's Turbulent Times

“A great idea, without execution, is a waste of intellectual ability.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.