[quoth] laurent tailhade

From the aestheticization of violence to the definition of aesthetics as violence, the sentiment is summed up in Laurent Tailhade's reputed quip, after Auguste Vaillant's bombing of the Chamber of Deputies in 1893:

Qu'importent les victimes, si le geste est beau? [What do the victims matter, so long as the gesture is beautiful?] (quoted from, via j)