The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

by Philip Pullman

The other side’s got an energy that our side en’t got. Comes from their certainty about being right. If you got that certainty, you’ll be willing to do anything to bring about the end you want. It’s the oldest human problem, Lyra, an’ it’s the difference between good and evil. Evil can be unscrupulous, and good can’t. Evil has nothing to stop it doing what it wants, while good has one hand tied behind its back. To do the things it needs to do to win, it’d have to become evil to do ’em.’

He told me there were truth-tellers, and they needed to know what the truth was so as to tell it. And there were liars, and they needed to know what the truth was so they could change it or avoid it. And there were bullshitters, who didn’t care about the truth at all. They weren’t interested. What they spoke wasn’t the truth and it wasn’t lies, it was bullshit. All they were interested in was their own performance.