An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2)

by James Islington

She was just like the rest of them—willfully ignorant, passionately believing in something because she surrounded herself with people who also passionately believed in the same thing. He knew the type, now—those who found it easier to listen to people who reinforced what they already thought, rather than actually considering the opinions of those who didn’t.

The danger of evil, the purpose of evil, is that it causes those who would oppose it to become evil also.”

‘The people with whom we are friends should never affect our morality; rather, our morality should affect with whom we are friends.’”

They’d both lived long enough to see how people—societies, even—could succumb to mob morality. The desire for acceptance, the desire to feel like they were fighting for something … too many were willing to base their beliefs around such shallow things. It was rarely about what was actually right or wrong. Such influences were understandable, but they were unquestionably to be avoided.

“The lesser of two evils, or the greater good. Get a good man to utter either of those phrases, and there is no one more eager to begin perpetrating evil.”