Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

—Judges 16:30

War is a bitter life-and-death struggle between two nations. Any war will become all the more bitter and grim the longer it lasts, especially when two ideologies clash.

—Field Marshal Wilhelm Leeb

Time is against us. Available airplanes are limited in number. We are forced to take the most effective method to fight…the time has arrived for consideration of … crash dive tactics.

—Admiral Kimpei Teroka, Manilla 1944

Life is as the weight of a feather compared to one’s duty

—Japanese Proverb

These martyrdom operations are the shortest way to Allah. They are the most exalted and magnificent way of martyrdom in our generation. The martyrdom operation is a weapon Allah gave this nation, and no one can take it away from us. They can take our cannons, our tanks, our planes, but they cannot take away our spirit, which yearns for Allah and which is determined to achieve martyrdom.

—Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah Secretary General

Let me be a martyr, dwelling in a high mountain pass among a band of knights who, united in devotion to God,descend to face armies.

—Bin Laden, February 2003

Several times in recorded history groups of fighters have gone into battle planning to die. Jewish Zealots of the uprising of 66AD, the Ismaili Assassins of the 11th Century, and the Japanese Kamikazes of WWII predate the contemporary use of suicide attacks in war. How can this seemingly irrational behavior be explained—deranged actions of psychopaths? What is the logic of suicide attacks and what is the psychology of suicide attackers?