Brutality's prestige

 "We should not think that because we are less brutal, less violent, less inhuman than those we are confronting, we will prevail.  Brutality, violence, and inhumanity have immense prestige . . . .  The contrary virtues, so as to have an equivalent prestige, must be exercised in a constant and effective manner.  Whoever is only incapable of being as brutal, violent, and inhuman as the adversary, yet without exercising the opposite virtues, is inferior to this adversary in both inner strength and prestige; and he will not hold his own against him."  --Simone Weil, quoted in Jacobs, The Year of Our Lord 1943, p. 4