The famous British professor from a century ago Alfred Momerie says that it has often been concluded that murder is the worst crime. "But this will not do. He (the murderer) is generally executed for his crime and that is the end of him. But the sins of the temper and of speech and of thought, the sins of unkindness, or unneighborliness, are sins that we can go on committing without fear of punishment, every day, every hour, every moment. The amount of suffering, therefore, which can be inflicted by them is practically infinite."

The Professor goes on to ask the question: "Which has caused the greater amount of human misery theft or irritability? Suppose that a member of your family, with whom you are compelled to live, is incessantly annoying, incessantly torturing you by his moroseness, by his fits of rage will you say that this man who has made your home a veritable hell is more righteous than the man who steals from your purse?" Momerie goes on to conclude that the world has suffered infinitely greater by those who are guilty of the sins of temperament which arise ultimately from the sin of pride.

Perhaps this is Jesus' meaning when he said that hatred of the heart is the same as murder with the hand (Matthew 5).