"Altering men's minds to believe as you wish them to is absolutely, categorically wrong — even if what you want to make them believe is good for them!"
—Nighthawk
"You're hypocrites, all of you! You supported the building of the [behavior modification] machine! You supported it's use! Now you're going to quibble about how it's used, who it's used on? You handed the Archer a loaded gun — and now you're shirking the responsibility of him using it! What a joke. "
—Amphibian
"Let's leave morality out of this for a moment. You want to know what's the biggest argument against what you and the Squadron tried to do? It's that you created a utopia that needs you to constantly maintain it. All of the things you've given the world — behavior modification, gun control, abolishment of the militia, hibernacles — all of those things only work for the good of society as long as you basically good-intentioned people oversee them. But what happens when you're gone? Can future generations be trusted to use what you've created as nobly as you did? I think not. Your utopian system is a failure because it requires beings as powerful and good as you to prevent it's abuse. Today's utopia could be tomorrow's totalitarian state — all because you gave men the means to create it! Better to dismantle your 'perfect' system and let the government of that imperfect species — man — be an imperfect system he is capable of handling!"
—Nighthawk
"There was a danger in calling ourselves the Squadron Supreme. We began to believe that we always knew what we were doing — that our noble ends justified our ignoble means. Before he died, Nighthawk made me see that in our haste to save the world, we never considered the long-range consequences of our deeds. Ours is a precarious utopia, built with the most dangerous tools yet devised. We dare not make society dependent on them."
—Hyperion
