"Kill one man, and you're a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
The French biologist and philosopher Jean Rostand (1894-1977) was led to that bleak view of greatness by sinister events in Europe in the 1930s. Forty years later, the line was picked up by filmmaker Kihachi Okamoto, who used it in his 1967 black comedy "Satsujinkyo Jidai" ("The Age of Assassins").
Josei Seven magazine borrows it from the film and alters the context — from killing to lying. Its adaptation goes, "Lie to your husband or friend (or mother or teacher) and you're a liar. Lie to the country and you're a hero."