There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.

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Source, in full

Widely attributed to Camus on the internet, the earliest attribution of such a statement to him yet located is an unsourced citation in Quotations from the Wayside (1999) by Brenda Wong: "Many things are worth dying for, but none worth killing for." The earliest occurrence yet located of such a statement, by anyone, is one by Albert Dietrich in a 31 January 1943 letter to his conscientious objector status Hearing Officer, reported in Army GI, Pacifist CO : The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich (2005) edited by Scott H. Bennett: "There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for." / Prior to the attribution to Camus, the most widely publicized occurrence of such an expression was probably in the song "Too Long A Soldier" by Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher, sung by Pat Benatar on her album Wide Awake In Dreamland (1988): "I've seen so much worth dying for, so little worth killing over."

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Camus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.