You Cannot Kill an Idea/Quotes

""Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There's only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof.""

- V, V for Vendetta

""The Devil is an idea. In all those civilizations, just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape.""

- The Doctor

"Over time, any sentence uttered long and loud enough becomes fixed. Becomes a truth. Provided, of course, you can outlast the dissent and silence your opponents. But should you succeed – and remove all challengers – then what remains is, by default, now true.

Is it truth in some objective sense? No. But how does one ever achieve an objective point of view? The answer is you don't. It is literally, physically impossible. There are too many variables. Too many fields and formulae to consider. We can try, of course. We can inch closer and closer to a revelation. But we'll never reach it. Not ever...

And so I have realized, that so long as The Templars exist, they will attempt to bend reality to their will. They recognize there is no such thing as an absolute truth – or if there is – we are hopelessly under-equipped to recognize it. And so in its place, they seek to create their own explanation. It is the guiding principle of their so-named "New World Order"; To reshape existence in their own image. It is not about artifacts. Not about men. These are merely tools. It's about concepts. Clever of them. For how does one wage war against a concept?

It is the perfect weapon. It lacks a physical form yet can alter the world around us in numerous, often violent ways. You cannot kill a creed. Even if you kill all of its adherents, destroy all of its writings – these are a reprieve at best. Some one, some day, will rediscover it. Reinvent it. I believe that even we, the Assassins, have simply re-discovered an Order that predates the Old Man himself... "

- Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Assassin's Creed II, "Codex"

""There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world. An idea whose time has come.""

- Anonymous

""If you gun down the messenger

You guarantee that he will be made into a saint

A martyr of the free word.""

- Epica, "Martyr of the Free Word"

""Ideas by man and only that will last

And over time we've learned from the past

That no man's fit to rule the world alone

A man will die but not his ideas.""

- Ace Of Base, "Happy Nation"