the feeling that I had that awful evening, when Vergil read to us of Marcellus, remains with me, and shall remain for as long as I live; it was as if suddenly, and for the first time, I truly saw that world in which you must live, and saw the world in which I had lived without seeing for so long. There are other ways and other worlds in which one might live, humbler and more obscure, perhaps—though what is that in the eyes of the indifferent gods?
Ways that are arguably far preferable. It isn't possible to have any significant power without also being a target. It isn't possible to hold the lives of others in our hands without blood on our hands as well. So much of law is concerned with the morals of the person in charge, meaning that power also requires us to force our views onto others, the unintended consequences of which are ours to own.
