An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case; God has written all the books.
— Samuel Butler
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
They were real underdogs, struggling to succeed, which made you feel sorry for them, made you want to root for them, until they did something despicable. Then you found yourself looking at them in a negative light, looking down on them, cheering whenever they failed.
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek justification for his actions.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
