The Punisher/Quotes

"I leave this as a declaration of intent, so no one will be confused. One: "Si vis pacem, para bellum." Latin. Boot Camp Sergeant made us recite it like a prayer. "Si vis pacem, para bellum - If you want peace, prepare for war." Two: Frank Castle is dead. He died with his family. Three: In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law to pursue a natural justice. This is not vengeance; revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance...punishment."

- The Punisher (2004 film)

"I caught a glimpse of heaven once. The Angels showed me. The idea was I'd kill for them. Clean up their mistakes on Earth. Eventually redeem myself."

"Tried it. Didn't like it. Told them where to stick it. So they brought me up to heaven, to see what I'd be missing. A wife. A son. A daughter. I hadn't seen them since they bled out in my arms. Then I was cast down."

"Back to a world of killers. Rapists. Psychos. Perverts. A brand new evil every minute, spewed out as fast as men can think them up. A world where pitching a criminal dwarf off a skyscraper to tell his fellow scum you're back is a sane and rational act. The angels thought it would be hell for me."

"[Said dwarf hits the ground with a splat] But they were wrong."

- Punisher: Welcome Back Frank #1 (said skyscraper is the Empire State Building)

"They hated that old man so much they shot him through my family. The world went crazy on a summer's day in Central Park, In the time before UZIs and Berettas, before nine millimeter popguns ruled the streets. It was a Thompson, like the ones our fathers carried, and I recognized its rattle even as its big, man-stopping forty-fives punched blood and breath from my lungs. I hit the ground besides my daughter. She's been gutshot, badly, and when she saw the things that boiled and wriggled from her belly the expression on her face was not a little girl's. My wife bled out later on the operating table, her heart a gaping hole her life drained through. Whenever I get careless, that yearning in her eyes creeps up and brings me to my knees. Right then the old man's soldiers started shooting back. My son dropped wordlessly, without a mark on him. I took a breath that cut like glass, spat blood, rose to my knees, picked up the boy and searched in vain for entry wounds. The bullet had entered through his open mouth. That was our picnic in the park. And now every night I go out and make the world sane."

- Punisher (MAX) #1, "In The Beginning"

"There’s a dream I have from time to time and in the dream, I don't stop. I kill the soldiers and the hitmen, the extortionists and racketeers, the dark old fucks who send them out to fight. I hold the trigger down until they’re all gone -- but I don’t stop. The innocents are watching, just like always; the slack-jawed thousands, gazing at the beast. My family lay red and shredded in the grass. I face the crowd and bring the weapon to my shoulder. "If my world ends," I tell them, "so does yours." The recoil starts and I wake up. It’s just a dream, I always tell myself. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream."

- Punisher (MAX) #22, "Up Is Down, and Black Is White"

"Whatever he was jabbering, it wasn't English. Pavla was Albanian -- maybe he was too. But I'd know the Lord's Prayer in any language. Gave him a moment. To just before the line about forgiveness."

- Punisher (MAX) #25, "The Slavers"

"It was in that moment that I realized something. A dull, blurred feeling that I’d had since this whole mess began, all of a sudden crystal clear. It had been a long, long time since I hated anyone the way I hated them."

- Punisher (MAX) #29, "The Slavers"

"My favorite sound in the world is the silence after the first gunshot. There's a stillness, as though the air itself is afraid to move. I do some of my best work in that silence."

- Marvel Civil War: Punisher War Journal

"Some people would tell you that I'm crazy. They would be wrong. It's not crazy when the state of the world makes you want to kill everyone responsible. It's crazy when it doesn't."

- Punisher (MAX) #8, "Bullseye"