FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2

 http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

NOTE: The chapters in the text of Hume's History of England are not subdivided into Sections, as my posts will be. The Sections will broadly (not always exactly) correspond with the subdivisions of the LibraVox recording of the book to which I am listening.

"The indiscretion of Robert soon exposed him to more fatal injuries. This prince, whose bravery and candour procured him respect while at a distance, had no sooner attained the possession of power and enjoyment of peace, than all the vigour of his mind relaxed, and he fell into contempt among those who approached his person, or were subjected to his authority. Alternately abandoned to dissolute pleasures and to womanish superstition, he was so remiss, both in the care of his treasure and the exercise of his government, that his servants pillaged his money with impunity, stole from him his very clothes, and proceeded thence to practise every species of extortion on his defenceless subjects. The barons, whom a severe administration alone could have restrained, gave reins to their unbounded rapine upon their vassals, and inveterate animosities against each other; and all Normandy, during the reign of this benign prince, was become a scene of violence and depredation. [MN 1103. Attack of Normandy.] The Normans, at last, observing the regular government which Henry, notwithstanding his usurped title, had been able to establish in England, applied to him, that he might use his authority for the suppression of these disorders, and they thereby afforded him a pretence for interposing in the affairs of Normandy. Instead of employing his mediation to render his brother's government respectable, or to redress the grievances of the Normans, he was only attentive to support his own partisans, and to increase their number by every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation. Having found, in a visit which he made to that duchy, that the nobility were more disposed to pay submission to him than to their legal sovereign, he collected, by arbitrary extortions on England, a great army and treasure [MN 1105.], and returned next year to Normandy, in a situation to obtain, either by violence or corruption, the dominion of that province.[...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

"[...] This prince [Edgar Atheling] was distinguished by personal bravery: but nothing can be a stronger proof of his mean talents in every other respect, than that, notwithstanding he possessed the affections of the English, and enjoyed the only legal title to the throne, he was allowed, during the reigns of so many violent and jealous usurpers, to live unmolested, and go to his grave in peace."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

"[...] The king [Henry I]'s situation, in the beginning of his reign, obliged him to pay great court to Anselm: the advantages which he had reaped from the zealous friendship of that prelate had made him sensible how prone the minds of his people were to superstition, and what an ascendant the ecclesiastics had been able to assume over them. He had seen, on the accession of his brother Rufus, that, though the rights of primogeniture were then violated, and the inclinations of almost all the barons thwarted, yet the authority of Lanfranc, the primate, had prevailed over all other considerations: his own case, which was still more unfavourable, afforded an instance in which the clergy had more evidently shown their influence and authority. These recent examples, while they made him cautious not to offend that powerful body, convinced him, at the same time, that it was extremely his interest to retain the former prerogative of the crown in filling offices of such vast importance, and to check the ecclesiastics in that independence to which they visibly aspired. [...] The prudence and temper of the king appeared in nothing more conspicuous than in the management of this delicate affair; where he was always sensible that it had become necessary for him to risk his whole crown in order to preserve the most invaluable jewel of it."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

"[...Pope] Pascal quoted the Scriptures to prove that Christ was the door; and he thence inferred, that all ecclesiastics must enter into the church through Christ alone, not through the civil magistrate, or any profane laymen. "It is monstrous," added the pontiff, "that a son should pretend to beget his father, or a man to create his God: priests are called gods in Scripture, as being the vicars of God: and will you, by your abominable pretensions to grant them their investiture, assume the right of creating them?

   (...I much suspect that this text of Scripture is a forgery of his holiness; for I have not been able to find it. Yet it passed current in those ages, and was often quoted by the clergy as the foundation of their power....)

   [...] Pascal wrote back letters equally positive and arrogant, both to the king and primate; urging to the former, that, by assuming the right of investitures, he committed a kind of spiritual adultery with the church, who was the spouse of Christ, and who must not admit of such a commerce with any other person; and insisting with the latter, that the pretension of kings to confer benefices was the source of all simony: a topic which had but too much foundation in those ages."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

"[...] The instrument, indeed, with which they [the popes] wrought, the ignorance and superstition of the people, is so gross an engine, of such universal prevalence, and so little liable to accident or disorder, that it may be successful even in the most unskilful hands; and scarce any indiscretion can frustrate its operations. [...] The clergy, feeling the necessity which they lay under of being protected against the violence of princes or rigour of the laws, were well pleased to adhere to a foreign head, who, being removed from the fear of the civil authority, could freely employ the power of the whole church, in defending her ancient or usurped properties and privileges, when invaded in any particular country: the monks, desirous of an independence of their diocesans, professed a still more devoted attachment to the triple crown; and the stupid people possessed no science or reason, which they could oppose to the most exorbitant pretensions.

   Nonsense passed for demonstration: the most criminal means were sanctified by the piety of the end: treaties were not supposed to be binding, where the interests of God were concerned: the ancient laws and customs of states had no authority against a divine right: impudent forgeries were received as authentic monuments of antiquity: and the champions of holy church, if successful, were celebrated as heroes; if unfortunate, were worshipped as martyrs; and all events thus turned out equally to the advantage of clerical usurpations. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

"[... Pope] Pascal had already excommunicated the Earl of Mellent, and the other ministers of Henry, who were instrumental in supporting his pretensions [n]: he daily menaced the king himself with a like sentence; and he suspended the blow only to give him leisure to prevent it by a timely submission. The malecontents waited impatiently for the opportunity of disturbing his government by conspiracies and insurrections: the king's best friends were anxious at the prospect of an incident which would set their religious and civil duties at variance[.]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 2, 1762

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Introduction

    https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.132

"Since no society can exist without order, and no order without regulation, we may take it as a rule of history that the power of custom varies inversely as the multiplicity of laws, much as the power of instinct varies inversely as the multiplicity of thoughts. Some rules are necessary for the game of life; they may differ in different groups, but within a grup they must be essentially the same. These rules may be conventions, customs, morals, or laws. Conventions are forms of behavior found expedient by a people; customs are conventions accepted by successive generations, after natural selection through trial and error and elimination; morals are such customs as the groups considers vital to its welfare and development. In primitive societies, where there was no written law, these vital customs or morals regulate every sphere of human existence, and give stability and continuity to the social order. Through the slow magic of time such customs, by long repetition, become a second nature to the individual; if he violates them he feels a certain fear, discomfort or shame; this is the origin of that conscience, or moral sense, which Darwin chose as the most impressive distinction between animals and men. In its higher development conscience is social consciousness -- the feeling of the individual that he belongs to a group, and owes it some measure of loyalty and consideration. Morality is the cooperation of the part with the whole, and of each group with some larger group. Civilization, course, would be impossible without it." 

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Introduction, 1935

"[We] may take it as a rule of history that the power of custom varies inversely as the multiplicity of laws, much as the power of instinct varies inversely as the multiplicity of thoughts. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Introduction, 1935

"[...] Through the slow magic of time such customs, by long repetition, become a second nature to the individual; if he violates them he feels a certain fear, discomfort or shame; this is the origin of that conscience, or moral sense, which Darwin chose as the most impressive distinction between animals and men.[...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Introduction, 1935

"[...] In its higher development conscience is social consciousness -- the feeling of the individual that he belongs to a group, and owes it some measure of loyalty and consideration. Morality is the cooperation of the part with the whole, and of each group with some larger group. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Introduction, 1935

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Section IV

   https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.126

"As the basic needs of man are hunger and love, so the fundamental functions of social organization are economic provision and biological maintenance; a stream of children is as vital as a continuity of food. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] Until the state -- towards the dawn of the historic civilizations -- becomes the central an permanent source of social order, the clan undertakes the delicate task of regulating the relations between the sexes and between the generations, and even after the state has been established, the essential government of mankind remains in that most deep-rooted of all historic institutions, the family. [...] When economic relations and political mastery replaced kinship as the principle of social organization and political mastery replaced kinship as the principle of social organization, the clan lost its position as the sub-structure of society; at the bottom it was supplanted by the family, at the top it was superseded by the state. Government took over the problem of maintaining order, while the family assumed the tasks of reorganizing industry and carrying on the race."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] Throughout the animal world, fertility and destruction decrease as parental care increases; throughout the human world, the birth rate and the death rate fall together as civilization rises. Better family care makes possible a longer adolescence, in which the young receive fuller training and development before they are flung upon their own resources; and the lowered birth rate releases human energy for other activities than reproduction."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] In some existing tribes, and probably in the earliest human groups the physiological role of the male in reproduction appears to have escaped notice quite as completely as among animals, who rut and mate and breed with happy unconsciousness of cause and effect. The Trobriand Islanders attribute pregnancy not to any commerce of the sexes, but to the entrance of a baloma, or ghost, into the woman. Usually the ghost enters while the woman is bathing; 'a fish has bitten me,' the girl reports. 'When,' says Malinowski, 'I asked who was the father of an illegitimate child, there was only one answer - that there was no father, since the girl was unmarried. If, then, I asked, in quite plain terms, who was the physiological father, the question was not understood...The answer would be: 'It is a baloma who gave her this child.'' These islanders had a strange belief that the baloma would more readily enter a girl given to loose relations with men; nevertheless, in choosing precautions against pregnancy, the girls preferred to avoid bathing at high tide rather than to forego relations with men. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] Even where the function of the male was understood, sex relationships were so irregular that it was never a simple matter to determine the father. Consequently the quite primitive seldom bothered to inquire into the paternity of her child; it belonged to her, and she belonged not to her husband but to her father -- or her brother -- and the clan; it was with these that she remained, and these were the only male relatives whom her child would know. The bonds of affection between brother and sister were usually stronger than between husband and wife. The husband, in many cases, remained in the family and clan of his mother, and saw his wife only as a clandestine visitor. Even in classical civilization the brother was dearer than the husband: it was her brother, not her husband, that the wife of Intaphernes saved from the wrath of Darius; it was for her brother, not for her husband, that Antigone sacrificed herself. 'The notion that a man's wife is the nearest person in the world to him is a relatively modern notion, and one which is restricted to a comparatively small part of the human race.'

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935 (italics added)

"So slight is the relation between father and children in primitive society that in a great number of tribes the sexes live apart. In Australia and Micronesia, in Assam and Burma, among the Aleuts, Eskimos, and Samoyeds, and here and there over the earth, tribes may still be found in which there is no visible family life; the men live apart from the women, and visit them only now and then; even the meals are taken separately. In northern Papua it is not considered right for a man to be seen associating socially with a woman, even if she is the mother of his children. In Tahiti 'family life is quite unknown.' [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"The simplest form of the family, then, was the woman and her children, living with her mother or her brother in the clan; such an arrangement was a natural outgrowth of the animal family of the mother and her litter, and of the biological ignorance of primitive man.

   An alternate early form was 'matrilocal marriage': the husband left his clan and went to live with the clan and family of his wife, laboring for her or with her in the service of her parents. Descent, in such cases, was traced through the female line, and inheritance was through the mother; sometimes even the kingship passed down through her raher than through the male. This 'mother-right' was not a 'matriarchate' -- it did not imply the rule of women over men. Even when property was transmitted through the woman she had little power over it; she was used as a means of tracing relationships which, through primitive laxity or freedom, were otherwise obscure. 

   It is true that in any system the woman exercises a certain authority, rising naturally out of her importance in the home, out of her  function as the dispenser of food, and out of the need that the male has for her, ad her power to refuse him. It is also true that there have been, occasionally, women rulers among some South African tribes; that in the Pelew Islands the chief did nothing of consequence without the advice of a council of elder women; that among the Iroquois the squaws had an equal right, with the men, of speaking and voting in the tribal council; and that among the Seneca Indians women held great power, even to the selection of the chief. But these are rare and exceptional cases. 

   All in all the position of woman in early societies was one of subjection verging upon slavery. Her periodic disability, her unfamiliarity with weapons, the biological absorption of her strength in carrying, nursing and rearing children, handicapped her in the war of the sexes, and doomed her to a subordinate status in all but the very lowest and the very highest societies. Nor was her position necessarily to rise with the development of civilization; it was destined to be lower in Periclean Greece than among the North American Indians; it was to rise and fall with her strategic importance rather than with the culture and morals of men."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935 (Formatting and italics added)

"Most economic advances, in early society, were made by the woman rather than the man. While for centuries he clung to the ancient ways of hunting and herding, she developed agriculture near the camp, and those busy arts of the home which were to become the most important industries of later days. [...] It was she who developed the home, slowly adding man to the his of her domesticated animals, and training him in those social dispositions and amenities which are the basis and cement of civilization."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] The growth of transmissible property in cattle and in the products of the soil led to the sexual subordination of woman, for the male now demanded from her that fidelity which he thought would enable him to pass on his accumulations to children presumably his own. Gradually the man had his way: fatherhood became recognized, and property began to descend through the male; mother-right yielded to father-right; and the patriarchal family, with the oldest male at its head, became the economic, legal, political, and moral unit of society. The gods, who had been mostly feminine, became great bearded patriarchs, with such harems as ambitious men dreamed of in their solitude."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

"[...] Marriage began as a form of the law of property, as a part of the institution of slavery."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Section 4, 1935

QUOTES: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, 1814, Vol.1, Ch.8

 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm

"[...] The whole scene was depressing; for it argued, at the first glance, at least a stagnation of industry, and perhaps of intellect. Even curiosity, the busiest passion of the idle, seemed of a listless cast in the village of Tully-Veolan: the curs aforesaid alone showed any part of its activity; with the villagers it was passive. They stood, and gazed at the handsome young officer and his attendant, but without any of those quick motions and eager looks that indicate the earnestness with which those who live in monotonous ease at home look out for amusement abroad. Yet the physiognomy of the people, when more closely examined, was far from exhibiting the indifference of stupidity; their features were rough, but remarkably intelligent; grave, but the very reverse of stupid; and from among the young women an artist might have chosen more than one model whose features and form resembled those of Minerva. The children also, whose skins were burnt black, and whose hair was bleached white, by the influence of the sun, had a look and manner of life and interest. It seemed, upon the whole, as if poverty, and indolence, its too frequent companion, were combining to depress the natural genius and acquired information of a hardy, intelligent, and reflecting peasantry."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.8, 1814

"

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.6, Section 1

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

NOTE: The chapters in the text of Hume's History of England are not subdivided into Sections, as my posts will be. The Sections will broadly (not always exactly) correspond with the subdivisions of the LibraVox recording of the book to which I am listening.

"[...] Having effected that difficult point of disembarking them safely in Asia, he entered into a private correspondence with Soliman, Emperor of the Turks; and practised every insidious art, which his genius, his power, or his situation enabled him to employ, for disappointing the enterprise, and discouraging the Latins from making thenceforward any such prodigious migrations. His dangerous policy was seconded by the disorders inseparable from so vast a multitude, who were not united under one head, and were conducted by leaders of the most independent, intractable spirit, unacquainted with military discipline, and determined enemies to civil authority and submission. The scarcity of provisions, the excess of fatigue, the influence of unknown climates, joined to the want of concert in their operations, and to the sword of a warlike enemy, destroyed the adventurers by thousands, and would have abated the ardour of men impelled to war by less powerful motives. Their zeal, however, their bravery, and their irresistible force, still carried them forward, and continually advanced them to the great end of their enterprise. After an obstinate siege they took Nice, the seat of the Turkish empire; they defeated Soliman in two great battles; they made themselves masters of Antioch; and entirely broke the force of the Turks, who had so long retained those countries in subjection: the Soldan of Egypt, whose alliance they had hitherto courted, recovered, on the fall of the Turkish power, his former authority in Jerusalem; and he informed them by his ambassadors, that if they came disarmed to that city, they might now perform their religious vows, and that all Christian pilgrims, who should thenceforth visit the holy sepulchre, might expect the same good treatment which they had ever received from his predecessors. The offer was rejected; the soldan was required to yield up the city to the Christians; and on his refusal, the champions of the Cross advanced to the siege of Jerusalem, which they regarded as the consummation of their labours. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762

"[...] After a siege of five weeks, they [the Crusaders] took Jerusalem by assault; and, impelled by a mixture of military and religious rage, they put the numerous garrison and inhabitants to the sword without distinction. Neither arms defended the valiant, nor submission the timorous: no age or sex was spared: infants on the breast were pierced by the same blow with their mothers, who implored for mercy: even a multitude, to the number of ten thousand persons, who had surrendered themselves prisoners, and were promised quarter, were butchered in cool blood by those ferocious conquerors [a]. The streets of Jerusalem were covered with dead bodies [b]; and the triumphant warriors, after every enemy was subdued and slaughtered, immediately turned themselves, with the sentiments of humiliation and contrition, towards the holy sepulchre. They threw aside their arms, still streaming with blood: they advanced with reclined bodies, and naked feet and heads, to the sacred monument: they sung anthems to their Saviour who had there purchased their salvation by his death and agony: and their devotion, enlivened by the presence of the place where he had suffered, so overcame their fury, that they dissolved in tears, and bore the appearance of every soft and tender sentiment. So inconsistent is human nature with itself! and so easily does the most effeminate superstition ally, both with the most heroic courage and with the fiercest barbarity!"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762

"[...] So inconsistent is human nature with itself! and so easily does the most effeminate superstition ally, both with the most heroic courage and with the fiercest barbarity!"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762

"[Henry I], without losing a moment, hastened with the money to London; and having assembled some noblemen and prelates, whom his address, or abilities, or presents, gained to his side, he was suddenly elected, or rather saluted, king, and immediately proceeded to the exercise of royal authority. In less than three days after his brother's death, the ceremony of his coronation was performed by Maurice, Bishop of London, who was persuaded to officiate on that occasion; and thus by his courage and celerity, he intruded himself into the vacant throne. No one had sufficient spirit or sense of duty to appear in defence of the absent prince: all men were seduced or intimidated: present possession supplied the apparent defects in Henry's title, which was indeed founded on plain usurpation: and the barons, as well as the people, acquiesced in a claim which, though it could neither be justified nor comprehended, could now, they found, be opposed through the perils alone of civil war and rebellion."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762 (italics added)

"But as Henry foresaw that a crown, usurped against all rules of justice, would sit unsteady on his head, he resolved, by fair professions at least, to gain the affections of all his subjects. Besides taking the usual coronation oath to maintain the laws and execute justice, he passed a charter, which was calculated to remedy many of the grievous oppressions which had been complained of during the reigns of his father and brother. [...]" (See post containing the Charter of Liberties of Henry I, 1100)

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762

"To give greater authenticity to these concessions, Henry lodged a copy of his charter in some abbey of each county, as if desirous that it should be exposed to the view of all his subjects, and remain a perpetual rule for the limitation and direction of his government: yet it is certain, that, after the present purpose was served, he never once thought, during his reign, of observing one single article of it; and the whole fell so much into neglect and oblivion, that in the following century, when the barons, who had heard an obscure tradition of it, desired to make it the model of the great charter which they exacted from King John, they could with difficulty find a copy of it in the kingdom. But as to the grievances here meant to be redressed, they were still continued in their full extent; and the royal authority, in all those particulars, lay under no manner of restriction. Reliefs of heirs, so capital an article, were never effectually fixed till the time of Magna Charta; and it is evident that the general promise here given, of accepting a just and lawful relief, ought to have been reduced to more precision, in order to give security to the subject. The oppression of wardship and marriage was perpetuated even till the reign of Charles II. And it appears from Glanville, the famous justiciary of Henry II, that in his time, where any man died intestate, an accident which must have been very frequent when the art of writing was so little known, the king, or the lord of the fief, pretended to seize all the movables, and to exclude every heir, even the children of the deceased: a sure mark of a tyrannical and arbitrary government."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762 (italics added)

"[...] But laws had at this time very little influence: power and violence governed every thing."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762 (italics added)

"The Normans, indeed, who domineered in England, were, during this age, so licentious a people, that they may be pronounced incapable of any true or regular liberty; which requires such improvement in knowledge and morals as can only be the result of reflection and experience, and must grow to perfection during several ages of settled and established government. 

   A people so insensible to the rights of their sovereign as to disjoint, without necessity, the hereditary succession, and permit a younger brother to intrude himself into the place of the elder, whom they esteemed, and who was guilty of no crime, but being absent, could not expect that that prince would pay any greater regard to their privileges, or allow his engagements to fetter his power and debar him from any considerable interest or convenience. 

   They had, indeed, arms in their hands, which prevented the establishment of a total despotism, and left their posterity sufficient power, whenever they should attain a sufficient degree of reason, to assure true liberty: but their turbulent disposition frequently prompted them to make such use of their arms, that they were more fitted to obstruct the execution of justice, than to stop the career of violence and oppresion. 

   The prince, finding that greater opposition was often made to him when he enforced the laws than when he violated them, was apt to render his own will and pleasure the sole rule of government; and, at every emergence, to consider more the power of the persons whom he might offend, than the rights of those whom he might injure. 

   The very form of this charter of Henry proves that the Norman barons (for they, rather than the people of England, were chiefly concerned in it) were totally ignorant of the nature of united monarchy, and were ill qualified to conduct, in conjunction with their sovereign, the machine of government. It is an act of his sole power, is the result of his free grace, contains some articles which bind others as well as himself, and is therefore unfit to be the deed of any one who possesses not the whole legislative power, and who may not at pleasure revoke all his concessions."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762 (Formatting and Italics added)

"[...] No act of [Henry I]'s reign rendered him equally popular with his English subjects, and tended more to establish him on the throne [than his marriage to Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland]. Though Matilda, during the life of her uncle and brothers, was not heir of the Saxon line, she was become very dear to the English on account of her connexions with it: and that people, who, before the Conquest, had fallen into a kind of indifference towards their ancient royal family, had felt so severely the tyranny of the Normans, that they reflected with extreme regret on their former liberty, and hoped for more equal and mild administration, when the blood of their native princes should be mingled with that of their new sovereigns."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.5, Section 1, 1762 (Italics added)

DOCUMENT: Charter of Liberties of Henry I, 1100

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/hcoronation.asp

Henry, king of the English, to Bishop Samson and Urso de Abetot and all his barons and faithful, both French and English, of Worcestershire, greeting.

1. Know that by the mercy of God and the common counsel of the barons of the whole kingdom of England I have been crowned king of said kingdom; and because the kingdom had been oppressed by unjust exactions, I, through fear of God and the love which I have toward you all, in the first place make the holy church of God free, so that I will neither sell nor put ot farm, nor on the death of archbishop or bishop or abbot will I take anything from the church's demesne or from its men until the successor shall enter it. And I take away all the bad customs by which the kingdom of England was unjustly oppressed; which bad customs I here set down in part:

2. If any of my barons, earls, or others who hold of me shall have died, his heir shall not buy back his land as he used to do in the time of my brother,but he shall relieve it by a just and lawful relief. Likewise also the men of my barons shall relieve their lands from their lords by a just and lawful relief.

3. And if any of my barons or other men should wish to give his daughter,sister, niece, or kinswoman in marriage, let him speak with me about it; but I will neither take anything from him for this permission nor prevent his giving her unless he should be minded to join her to my enemy. And if, upon the death of a baron or other of my men, a daughter is left as heir, I will give her with her land by the advice of my barons. And if, on the death of her husband, the wife is left and without children, she shall have her dowry and right of marriage, and I will not give her to a husband unless according to her will.

4. But if a wife be left with children, she shall indeed have her dowry and right of marriage so long as she shall keep her body lawfully, and I will not give her unless according to her will. And the guardian of the land and children shall be either the wife or another of the relatives who more justly ought to be. And I command that my barons restrain themselves similarly in dealing with the sons and daughters or wives of their men.

5. The common seigniorage, which has been taken through the cities and counties, but which was not taken in the time of King Edward I absolutely forbid henceforth. If any one, whether a moneyer or other, be taken with false money, let due justice be done for it.

6. I remit all pleas and all debts which were owing to my brother, except my lawful fixed revenues and except those amounts which had been agreed upon for the inheritances of others or for things which more justly concerned others. And if any one had pledged anything for his own inheritance, I remit it; also all reliefs which had been agreed upon for just inheritances.

7. And if any of my barons or men shall grow feeble, as he shall give or arrange to give his money, I grant that it be so given. But if, prevented by arms or sickness, he shall not have given or arranged to give his money, his wife, children, relatives, or lawful men shall distribute it for the good of his sould as shall seem best to them.

8. If any of my barons or men commit a crime, he shall not bind himself to a payment at the king's mercy as he has been doing in the time of my father or my brother; but he shall make amends according to the extent of the crime as he would have done before the time of my father in the time of my other predecessors. But if he be convicted of treachery or heinous crime, he shall make amends as is just.

9. I forgive all murders committed before the day I was crowned king; and those which shall be committed in the future shall be justly compensated according to the law of King Edward.

10. By the common consent of my barons I have kept in my hands forests as my father had them.

11. To those knights who render military service for their lands I grant of my own gift that the lands of their demesne ploughs be free from all payments and all labor, so that, having been released from so great a burden, they may equip themselves well with horses and arms and be fully prepared for my service and the defense of my kingdom.

12. I impose a strict peace upon my whole kingdom and command that it be maintained henceforth.

13. I restore to you the law of King Edward with those amendments introduced into it by my father with the advice of his barons.

14. If any one, since the death of King William my brother, has taken anything belonging to me or to any one else, the whole is to be quickly restored without fine; but if any one keep anything of it, he upon whom it shall be found shall pay me a heavy fine.

Witnesses Maurice bishop of London, and William bishop elect of Winchester, and Gerard bishop of Hereford, and earl Henry, and earl Simon, and Walter Giffard,and Robert de Montfort, and Roger Bigot, and Eudo the steward, and Robert son of Hamo, and Robert Malet. At London when I was crowned. Farewell.

QUOTES: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, 1814, Vol.1, Ch.7

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm

"The next morning, amid varied feelings, the chief of which was a predominant, anxious, and even solemn impression, that he was now in a great measure abandoned to his own guidance and direction, Edward Waverley departed from the Hall[.]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.7, 1814

"He now entered upon a new world, where, for a time, all was beautiful because all was new. [...]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.7, 1814

"[...] The duty of an officer, the most imposing of all others to the inexperienced mind, because accompanied with so much outward pomp and circumstance, is in its essence a very dry and abstract task, depending chiefly upon arithmetical combinations, requiring much attention, and a cool and reasoning head to bring them into action. Our hero was liable to fits of absence, in which his blunders excited some mirth, and called down some reproof. This circumstance impressed him with a painful sense of inferiority in those qualities which appeared most to deserve and obtain regard in his new profession. He asked himself in vain, why his eye could not judge of distance or space so well as those of his companions; why his head was not always successful in disentangling the various partial movements necessary to execute a particular evolution; and why his memory, so alert upon most occasions, did not correctly retain technical phrases and minute points of etiquette or field discipline. Waverley was naturally modest, and therefore did not fall into the egregious mistake of supposing such minuter rules of military duty beneath his notice, or conceiting himself to be born a general, because he made an indifferent subaltern. The truth was, that the vague and unsatisfactory course of reading which he had pursued, working upon a temper naturally retired and abstracted, had given him that wavering and unsettled habit of mind which is most averse to study and riveted attention. [...]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.7, 1814

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.III, D

     https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.136

"The fourth advance in the growth of law was the assumption, by the chief or the state, of the obligation to prevent and punish wrongs. It is but a step from settling disputes and punishing offenses to making some effort to prevent them. So the chief becomes not merely a judge but a lawgiver; and to the general body of 'common law,' derived from the customs of the group is added a body of 'positive law,' derived from the decrees of the government; in the one case the laws grow up, in the other they are handed down. In either case the laws carry with them the mark of their ancestry, and reek with the vengeance which they tried to replace. Primitive punishments are cruel, because primitive society feels insecure; as social organization becomes more stable, punishments become less severe."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (bold added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.III, C

    https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.136

"[...] Since these fines or compositions, paid to avert revenge, required some adjudication of offenses and damages, a third step towards law was taken by the formation of courts; the chief or the elders or the priests sat in judgment to settle the conflicts of their people. Such courts were not always judgment seats; often they were boards of voluntary conciliation, which arranged some amicable settlement of the dispute. For many centuries, and among many people, resort to courts remained optional; and where the offended party was dissatisfied with the judgment rendered, he was still free to seek personal revenge."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (bold added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.III, B

   https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.136

"The [second stage in the evolution of laws, that is, the] second step toward law and civilization in the treatment of crime was the substitution of damages for revenge. Very often the chief, to maintain internal harmony, used his power or influence to have the revengeful family content itself with gold or goods instead of blood. Soon a regular tariff arose, determining how much must be paid for an eye, a tooth, an arm, or a life; Hammurabi [sixth king of the First Babylonian dynasty of the Amorite tribe, reigning c.1792-1750 BC] legislated extensively in such terms. The Abyssinians were so meticulous in this regard that when a boy fell from a tree upon his companion and killed him, the judge decided that the bereaved mother should send another of her sons into the tree to fall upon the culprit's neck. The penalties assessed in cases of composition might vary with the sex, age and rank of the offender and the injured; among the Fijans, for example, petty larceny by a common man was considered a more heinous crime than murder by a chief. Throughout the history of law the magnitude of the crime has been lessened by the magnitude of the criminal. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (bold added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.III, A

  https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.136

"The first stage in the evolution of law is personal revenge. "Vengeance is mine," say sthe primitive individual; "I will repay." Among the Indian tribes of Lower California every man was his own policeman, and administered justice in the form of such vengeance as he was strong enough to take. So in many early societies the murder of A by B led to the murder of B by A's son or friend C, the murder of C by B's son or friend D, and so on perhaps to the end of the alphabet; we may find examples among the purest-blooded American families of today. The principle of revenge persists throughout the history of law: it appears in the Lex Talionis (a phrase apparently invented by Cicero -- or Law of Retaliation -- embodied in Roman Law; it plays a large role in the Code of Hammurabi, and in the "Mosaic" demand of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"; and it lurks behind most legal punishments even in our day."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (bold added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.III, Intro

 https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

Pg.132

"Law comes with property, marriage and government; the lowest societies manage to get along without it. 

   'I have lived with communities of savages in South America and in the East,' said Afred Russel Wallace [British naturalist, 1823-1913], 'who have no laws or law-courts but the public opinion of the village freely expressed. Each man scrupulously respects the rights of his fellows, and any infraction of those rights rarely or never takes place. In such a community all are nearly equal.'

   Herman Melville writes similarly of the Marquesas Islanders: 'During the time I lived among the Typees no one was ever put  upon his trial for any violence to the public. Everything went on in the valley with a harmony and smoothness unparalleled, I will venture to assert, in the most selec, refined, and pious associations of mortals in Christendom.'

   The old Russian Government established courts of law in the Aleutian Islands, but in fifty years those courts found no employment. 

   'Crimes and offenses,' reports Brinton, 'were so infrequent under the social system of the Iroquois that they can scarcely be said to have had a penal code.'

   Such are the ideal -- perhaps the idealized -- conditions for whose return the anarchist perennially pines."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (formatting and italics added)

"Law comes with property, marriage and government; the lowest societies manage to get along without it. [...] Certain amendments must be made to these descriptions. Natural societies are comparatively free from law first because they are ruled by custom as rigid and inviolable as any law; and secondly because crimes of violence, in the beginning, are considered to be private matters, and are left to bloody personal revenge."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935

"Underneath all phenomena of society is the great terra firma of custom, that bedrock of time-hallowed modes of thought and action which provides a society with some measure of steadiness and order through all absence, changes, and interruptions of law. Custom gives the same stability to the group that heredity and instinct give to the species, and habit to the individual. It is the routine that keeps men sane; for if there were no grooves along which thought and action might move the unconscious ease, the mind would be perpetually hesitant, and would soon take refuge in lunacy. A law of economy works in instinct and habit, in custom and convention: the most convenient mode of response to repeated stimuli or traditional situations is automatic response. Thought and innovation are disturbances of regularity, and are tolerated only for indispensable readaptations, or promised gold. 

   When to this natural basis of custom a supernatural sanction is added by religion, and the ways of one's ancestors are also the will of the gods, then custom becomes stronger than law, and subtracts substantially from primitive freedom. To violate law is to win the admiration of half the populace, who secretly envy anyone who can outwit this ancient enemy; to violate custom is to incur almost universal hostility. For custom rises out of the people, where as law is forced upon them from above; law is usually a decree from a master, but custom is the natural selection of those modes of action that have been found most convenient in the experience of the group. Law partly replaces custom when the state replaces the natural order of the family, the clan, and the tribe, and the village community; it more fully replaces custom when writing appears, and laws graduate from a code carried down in the memory of elders and priests into a system of legislation proclaimed in written tables. But the replacement is never complete; in the determination and judgment of human conduct custom remains to the end the force behind the law, the power behind the throne, the last "magistrate of men's lives."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (italics added)

Pg.136

"[...] For many centuries, and among many people, resort to courts remained optional; and where the offended party was dissatisfied with the judgment rendered, he was still free to seek personal revenge.

   In many cases disputes were settled by a public contest between the parties, varying in bloodiness from a harmless boxing-match -- as among the wise Eskimos -- to a duel to the death. Frequently the primitive mind resorted to an ordeal not so much on the medieval theory that a deity would reveal the culprit as in the hope that the ordeal, however unjust, would end a feud that might otherwise embroil the tribe for generations. Sometimes accuser and accused were asked to choose between two bowls of food of which one was poisoned; the wrong party might be poisoned (usually not beyond redemption), but then the dispute was ended, since both parties ordinarily believed in the righteousness of the ordeal. Among some tribes it was the custom for a native who acknowledged his guilt to hold out his leg and permit the injured party to pierce it with a spear. Or the accused submitted to having spears thrown at him by his accusers; if they all missed him he was declared innocent; if he was hit, even by one, he was adjudged guilty, and the affair was closed. From such early form the ordeal persisted through the laws of Moses and Hammurabi and down into the Middle Ages; the duel, which is one form of the ordeal, and which historians thought dead, is being revived in our own day. So brief and narrow, in some respects, is the span between primitive and modern man; so short is the history of civilization."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (italics added)

Pg.138

"In general the individual has fewer 'rights' in natural society than under civilization. Everywhere man is born in chains: the chains of heredity, of environment, of custom, and of law. The primitive individual moves always within a web of regulations incredibly stringent and detailed; a thousand tabus restrict his action, a thousand terrors limits his will. The natives of New Zealand were apparently without laws, but in actual fact rigid custom ruled every aspect of their lives. Unchangeable and unquestionable conventions determined the sitting and the rising, the standing and the walking, the eating, drinking an sleeping of the natives of Bengal. The individual was hardly recognized as a separate entity in natural society; what existed was the family and the clan, the tribe and the village community; it was these that owned land and exercised power. Only with the coming of private property, which gave him economic authority, and of the state, which gave him a legal status and defined rights, did the individual begin to stand out as a distinct reality. Rights so not come to us from nature, which knows no rights except cunning and strength; they are privileges assured to individuals by the community as advantageous to the common good. Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 (italics added)

"[...] Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.III, 1935 

QUOTES: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the Movie), 1990

SPLINTER: (to Raphael, who is arriving home late) Come sit by me. 

RAPHAEL: Couldn't this wait till morning? 

SPLINTER: You will listen now. (Raphael kneels next to him) My master Yoshi's first rule was... Possess the right thinking. Only then can one receive the gifts of strength, knowledge, and peace. I have tried to channel your anger, Raphael, but more remains. Anger clouds the mind. Turned inward, it is an unconquerable enemy. You are unique among your brothers, for you choose to face this enemy alone. But as you face it, do not forget them. And do not forget me. I am here, my son.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990

"Money cannot buy the honor which you have earned tonight. You make us all proud. Only effort, discipline, loyalty... earn the right to wear the Dragon dogi. You are here because the outside world rejects you. This is your family. I am your father. I want you all to become full members of The Foot. There is a new enemy... freaks of nature who interfere with our business. You are my eyes and ears. Find them. Together we will punish these... creatures! These... turtles!"

Shredder, to his gang of uninitiated teenagers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990

SPLINTER: How can a face so young wear so many burdens? 

DANNY: Oh, you can talk. 

SPLINTER: Yes, and I can also listen. Some say that the path from inner turmoil begins with a friendly ear. My ear is open if you care to use it. 

DANNY: I don't think so. 

SPLINTER: What is your name? 

DANNY: Danny.

SPLINTER: And have you no one to go to, Danny? No parent? 

DANNY: My dad couldn't care less about me. 

SPLINTER: I doubt that is true. 

DANNY: Why? 

SPLINTER: All fathers care for their sons.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990

"I am proud of you, my sons. Tonight you have learned the final and greatest truth of the ninja... that ultimate mastery comes not of the body, but of the mind. Together, there is nothing your four minds cannot accomplish. Help each other. Draw upon one another. And always remember the true force that binds you the same as that which brought me here tonight that which I gladly return with my final words. I love you all, my sons."

Master Splinter, communicating during a group meditation by the turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990

QUOTES: 3 Ninjas, 1992

GRANDPA: Colt, what is a ninja?

JEFFREY/COLT: A ninja is one who can use everything around him to trick his enemies. He is fast and he is friendly to his environment.
SAMUEL/ROCKY: A ninja is honest and good. His mind, body and spirit are one. He has self-control. He has discipline.
MICHAEL/TUM-TUM: A ninja loves nature, uh...'cause he's part of nature. Uh, a ninja never fights a battle if he cannot win.
GRANDPA: A ninja... mind, body, spirit, heart are one. And never use your power on anyone weaker than yourself.
JEFFREY/COLT: Hey, almost everyone is weaker than me, Grandpa, and slower.
GRANDPA: (grabbing Jeffrey/Colt's nose) Don't be overconfident.
MICHAEL.TUM-TUM: Yeah, don't be overconfident.
JEFFREY/COLT: Okay, Grandpa.
GRANDPA: (releasing Jeffrey/Colt's nose) All right, give me your hand. Love and trust be one. Just as a rope of one strand can be broken...a rope of four strands no enemy can break.

3 Ninjas, 1992

"I teach ninja; not murder."

Grandpa Mori Tanaka, 3 Ninjas, 1992

QUOTES: The Mighty Ducks, 1992

GORDON: Hmm! I see you still have this up. (pointing to the newspaper clipping from his childhood, headlining his missed penalty shot that lost his team's Pee Wee State Champion) Thanks very much. 

HANS: It is important to remember the past. 

GORDON: I'd just as soon forget it. That was the worse time in my life. My dad died that year. 

HANS: The two are not related. 

GORDON: No, but it felt like they were. 

HANS: I found this not long ago. (he hands Gordon a childhood photo with his father) He was proud of you. 

GORDON: I miss him. 

HANS: You scored 198 goals in that season, Gordon. It's a shame you quit. You... 

GORDON: ...could have gone all the way? Yeah. 

HANS: No! You really loved to play. You remember? You remember... you used to play on the ponds until after dark, until your father called you back. You really flew on that ice, Gordon. 

GORDON: That's all I ever wanted to do. 

HANS: Then why did you stop? Reilly? I saw what he did to you. Reilly is an idiot. 

GORDON: (shrugging) The guy wins. 

HANS: It's not about winning. It never was. Just show them how to play, show them how to have fun. Teach them to fly. That is what they'll remember long after you've gone back to being a doctor.
The Mighty Ducks, 1992

JESSE: The Ducks? We're the Ducks? 

PETER: Man, what brain-dead jerk came up with that name? 

GORDON (COACH BOMBAY): As a matter of fact, I did. But I didn't have a choice. We're being sponsored. 

AVERMAN: By who? Donald and Daisy? 

GORDON: Hey, you don't wanna be Ducks? You'd rather be District Five? Some stupid number? 

PETER: Better than some stupid animal. 

GORDON: I'll have you know, Peter, that the Duck is one of the most noble, agile and intelligent creatures of the animal kingdom. 

CONNIE: But they're wimpy. 

GUY: They don't even have teeth. 

GORDON: Neither do hockey players. Have you guys ever seen a flock of ducks flying in perfect formation? It's beautiful. Pretty awesome the way they all stick together. Ducks never say die. Ever seen a duck fight? No way. Why? Because the other animals are afraid. They know that if they mess with one duck, they gotta deal with the whole flock. (Gordon removes his jacket, revealing he is already wearing his Duck jersey)

KIDS: Oh, man! 

GORDON: I'm proud to be a duck. And I'd be proud to fly with any one of you. So how about it? Who's a Duck? 

FULTON: I'll be a Duck. 

CHARLIE: Yeah. Me too. 

(All the kids from the team approach the box with the jerseys, looking for the one with their name on it)

GOLDBERG: Anybody see Goldberg? 

GORDON: All right! Now we're the Ducks! 

KIDS: (cheer)

GORDON: The Mighty Ducks! 

KIDS: (cheer)

GORDON: What are we? 

KIDS: The Ducks!

The Mighty Ducks, 1992

"You wanted me to learn about fair play, and how to be part of a team. And I may not have learned everything yet, but I remember something my father said to me: A team isn't a bunch of kids out to win. A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn. And I'm not gonna let those kids down."

Gordon Bombay, The Mighty Ducks, 1992

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.3, Pt.II

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life
Pg.120

""A herd of blonde beasts of prey," says Nietzsche, "a race of conquerors and masters, which with all its warlike organization and all its organizing power pounces with its terrible claws upon a population, in numbers possibly tremendously superior, but as yet formless, ... such is the origin of the state." "The state as distinct from tribal organization," says Lester Ward, "begins with the conquest of one race by another." "Everywhere," says Oppenheimer, "we find some warlike tribe breaking through the boundaries of some less warlike people, settling down as nobility, and founding its state." "Violence," says Ratzenhofer, "is the agent which has created the state." The state, says Gumplowicz, is the result of conquest, the establishment of the victors as a ruling caste over the vanquished. "The State," says Sumner, "is the product of force, and exists by force."

   This violent subjection is usually of a settled agricultural group by a tribe of hunters or herders. For agriculture teaches men pacific ways, inures them to a prosaic routine, and enhausts them with the long day's toil; such men accumulate wealth, but they forget the arts and sentiments of war. The huter and the herder, accustomed to danger and skilled in killing, look upon war as but another form of the chase, and hardly more perilous; when the woods cease to give them abundant game, or flocks decrease through a thinning pasture, they look with envy upon the ripe fields of the village, they invent with modern ease some plausible reason for attack, they invade, conquer, enslave, and rule.

  (It is a law that holds only for eaerly societies, since under more complex conditions a variety of other factors -- greater wealth, better weapons, higher intelligence -- contribute to determine the issue. So Eqypt was conquered not only by Hyksos, Ethiopian, Arab and Turkish nomads, but also by the settled civilizations of Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome and England -- though not until these nations had become hunters and nomads on an imperialistic scale.)"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.II, 1935

"[...] In permanent conquest the principle of domination tends to become concealed and almost unconscious; the French who rebelled in 1789 hardly realized, until Camille Desmoulins reminded them, that the aristocracy that had ruled them for a thousand years had come from Germany and subjugated them by force. Time sanctifies everything; even the most arrant theft, in the hands of the robber's grandchildren, becomes sacred and inviolable property. Every stage begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag.

   The citizen is right; for however the state begins, it soon becomes an indispensable prop to order. As trade unites clans and tribes, relations spring up that depend not on kinship but on contiguity, and therefore require an artificial principle of regulation. The village community may serve as an example: it displaced tribe and clan as the mode of local organization, and achieved a simple, almost democratic government of small areas through a concourse of family-heads; but the very existence and number of such communities created a need for some external force that could regulate their interrelations and weave them into a larger economic web. The state, ogre though it was in its origin, supplied this need; it became not merely an organized force, but an instrument for adjusting interests of a thousand conflicting groups that constitute a complex society. It spreads the tentacles of its power and law over wider and wider areas, and though it made external war more destructive then before, it extended and maintained internal peace; the state may be defined as internal peace for external war. Men decided that it was better to pay taxes than to fight among themselves; better to pay tribute to one magnificent robber than to bribe them all. What an interregnum meant to a society accustomed to government may be judged from the behavior of the Baganda, among whom, when the king died, every man had to arm himself; for the lawless ran riot, killing and plundering everywhere. "Without autocratic rule," as Spencer said, "the evolution of society could not have commenced."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.II, 1935 (italics added )

"A state which should rely upon force alone would soon fall, for though men are naturally gullible they are also naturally obstinate, and power, like taxes, succeeds best when it is invisible and indirect. Hence the state, in order to maintain itself, used and forged many instruments of indoctrination -- the family, the church, the school -- to build in the soul of the citizen a habit of patriotic loyalty and pride. This saved a thousand policemen, and prepared the public mind for the docile coherence which is indispensable to war. Above all, the ruling minority sought more and more to transform its forcible mastery into a body of law which, while consolidating that mastery, would afford a welcome security and order to the people, and would recognize the rights of the "subject" sufficiently to win his acceptance of the law and his adherence to the State."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.3, Pt.II, 1935

QUOTES: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, 1814, Vol.1, Ch.6

  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm

"[...] his learning was more diffuse than accurate[...]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.6, 1814

"But patriotism, as it is the fairest, so it is often the most suspicious mask of other feelings[...]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.6, 1814

"I gave him a dinner once a week; but, Lord love you, what's once a week, when a man does not know where to go the other six days?"
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.6, 1814

"As the public were thus likely to be deprived of the benefit arising from his lucubrations by the selfish cowardice of the trade, Mr. Pembroke resolved to make two copies of these tremendous manuscripts for the use of his pupil. He felt that he had been indolent as a tutor, and, besides, his conscience checked him for complying with the request of Mr. Richard Waverley, that he would impress no sentiments upon Edward's mind inconsistent with the present settlement in church and state. But now, thought he, I may, without breach of my word, since he is no longer under my tuition, afford the youth the means of judging for himself, and have only to dread his reproaches for so long concealing the light which the perusal will flash upon his mind. While he thus indulged the reveries of an author and a politician, his darling proselyte, seeing nothing very inviting in the title of the tracts, and appalled by the bulk and compact lines of the manuscript, quietly consigned them to a corner of his travelling trunk."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.6, 1814

QUOTES: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, 1814, Vol.1, Ch.5

 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm

"[...] He had not as yet assumed courage to accost her on these occasions; but the meeting was not without its effect. A romantic lover is a strange idolater, who sometimes cares not out of what log he frames the object of his adoration; at least, if nature has given that object any passable proportion of personal charms, he can easily play the Jeweller and Dervise in the Oriental tale, [Footnote: See Hoppner's tale of The Seven Lovers.] and supply her richly, out of the stores of his own imagination, with supernatural beauty, and all the properties of intellectual wealth."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.5, 1814

"[...] The father himself saw no objection to this overture; but upon mentioning it casually at the table of the minister, the great man looked grave. The reason was explained in private. The unhappy turn of Sir Everard's politics, the minister observed, was such as would render it highly improper that a young gentleman of such hopeful prospects should travel on the Continent with a tutor doubtless of his uncle's choosing, and directing his course by his instructions. What might Mr. Edward Waverley's society be at Paris, what at Rome, where all manner of snares were spread by the Pretender and his sons—these were points for Mr. Waverley to consider. This he could himself say, that he knew his Majesty had such a just sense of Mr. Richard Waverley's merits, that, if his son adopted the army for a few years, a troop, he believed, might be reckoned upon in one of the dragoon regiments lately returned from Flanders."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.5, 1814

"[...] calling up all his feelings of family grandeur and warlike glory, he concluded, with logic something like Falstaff's, that when war was at hand, although it were shame to be on any side but one, it were worse shame to be idle than to be on the worst side, though blacker than usurpation could make it."
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.5, 1814

"There is no better antidote against entertaining too high an opinion of others than having an excellent one of ourselves at the very same time. Miss Stubbs had indeed summoned up every assistance which art could afford to beauty; but, alas! hoop, patches, frizzled locks, and a new mantua of genuine French silk, were lost upon a young officer of dragoons who wore for the first time his gold-laced hat, jack-boots, and broadsword."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.5, 1814

"I beg pardon, once and for all, of those readers who take up novels merely for amusement, for plaguing them so long with old-fashioned politics, and Whig and Tory, and Hanoverians and Jacobites. The truth is, I cannot promise them that this story shall be intelligible, not to say probable, without it. My plan requires that I should explain the motives on which its action proceeded; and these motives necessarily arose from the feelings, prejudices, and parties of the times. I do not invite my fair readers, whose sex and impatience give them the greatest right to complain of these circumstances, into a flying chariot drawn by hippogriffs, or moved by enchantment. Mine is a humble English post-chaise, drawn upon four wheels, and keeping his Majesty's highway. Such as dislike the vehicle may leave it at the next halt, and wait for the conveyance of Prince Hussein's tapestry, or Malek the Weaver's flying sentrybox. Those who are contented to remain with me will be occasionally exposed to the dulness inseparable from heavy roads, steep hills, sloughs, and other terrestrial retardations; but with tolerable horses and a civil driver (as the advertisements have it), I engage to get as soon as possible into a more picturesque and romantic country, if my passengers incline to have some patience with me during my first stages. [Footnote: These Introductory Chapters have been a good deal censured as tedious and unnecessary. Yet there are circumstances recorded in them which the author has not been able to persuade himself to retrench or cancel.]"

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.5, 1814

QUOTES: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, 1814, Vol.1, Ch.4

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5998/5998-h/5998-h.htm

"I have already hinted that the dainty, squeamish, and fastidious taste acquired by a surfeit of idle reading had not only rendered our hero unfit for serious and sober study, but had even disgusted him in some degree with that in which he had hitherto indulged.
    He was in his sixteenth year when his habits of abstraction and love of solitude became so much marked as to excite Sir Everard's affectionate apprehension. He tried to counterbalance these propensities by engaging his nephew in field-sports, which had been the chief pleasure of his own youthful days. But although Edward eagerly carried the gun for one season, yet when practice had given him some dexterity, the pastime ceased to afford him amusement.
   In the succeeding spring, the perusal of old Isaac Walton's fascinating volume determined Edward to become 'a brother of the angle.' But of all diversions which ingenuity ever devised for the relief of idleness, fishing is the worst qualified to amuse a man who is at once indolent and impatient; and our hero's rod was speedily flung aside. Society and example, which, more than any other motives, master and sway the natural bent of our passions, might have had their usual effect upon the youthful visionary. But the neighbourhood was thinly inhabited, and the home-bred young squires whom it afforded were not of a class fit to form Edward's usual companions, far less to excite him to emulation in the practice of those pastimes which composed the serious business of their lives.
   There were a few other youths of better education and a more liberal character, but from their society also our hero was in some degree excluded. Sir Everard had, upon the death of Queen Anne, resigned his seat in Parliament, and, as his age increased and the number of his contemporaries diminished, had gradually withdrawn himself from society; so that when, upon any particular occasion, Edward mingled with accomplished and well-educated young men of his own rank and expectations, he felt an inferiority in their company, not so much from deficiency of information, as from the want of the skill to command and to arrange that which he possessed. A deep and increasing sensibility added to this dislike of society. The idea of having committed the slightest solecism in politeness, whether real or imaginary, was agony to him; for perhaps even guilt itself does not impose upon some minds so keen a sense of shame and remorse, as a modest, sensitive, and inexperienced youth feels from the consciousness of having neglected etiquette or excited ridicule. Where we are not at ease, we cannot be happy; and therefore it is not surprising that Edward Waverley supposed that he disliked and was unfitted for society, merely because he had not yet acquired the habit of living in it with ease and comfort, and of reciprocally giving and receiving pleasure.

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.4, 1814 (italics added)

"The hours he spent with his uncle and aunt were exhausted in listening to the oft-repeated tale of narrative old age. Yet even there his imagination, the predominant faculty of his mind, was frequently excited. Family tradition and genealogical history, upon which much of Sir Everard's discourse turned, is the very reverse of amber, which, itself a valuable substance, usually includes flies, straws, and other trifles; whereas these studies, being themselves very insignificant and trifling, do nevertheless serve to perpetuate a great deal of what is rare and valuable in ancient manners, and to record many curious and minute facts which could have been preserved and conveyed through no other medium. If, therefore, Edward Waverley yawned at times over the dry deduction of his line of ancestors, with their various intermarriages, and inwardly deprecated the remorseless and protracted accuracy with which the worthy Sir Everard rehearsed the various degrees of propinquity between the house of Waverley-Honour and the doughty barons, knights, and squires to whom they stood allied; if (notwithstanding his obligations to the three ermines passant) he sometimes cursed in his heart the jargon of heraldry, its griffins, its moldwarps, its wyverns, and its dragons, with all the bitterness of Hotspur himself, there were moments when these communications interested his fancy and rewarded his attention."

Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, Ch.4, 1814

QUOTES: Mass Effect 3, 2012

"There's a false sense of security here. Even people from worlds that have gone down act like they're safe. I guess it's not just human nature: We all lie to ourselves to deal with horror. [...] Yeah, I'm just like everyone else, loosing myself in things I can control. And at the moment, that means creating the illusion of security here."
Armando-Owen Bailey, Human C-sec officer, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Liara told me the Counsel's not interested in helping us. [...] Why would they? Look at this place. There's no war here. People are whispering about it, people are talking about it, but they don't really believe it. [...] I mean, when push comes to shove, they just gonna turtle up, hope it don't hit them too, right? They'd rather believe in this [the illusion, the situation away from the problem] than face the truth. [...] It's like this place want you to forget that [the truth, back on the front line of the problem]."
James Vega, Human soldier, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Hey commander! I had my doubts about the Counsel, but after years of ignoring your warnings, they're finally willing to step up and tell you they just can't help. [...] Did they at least validate our parking? [...] Well, let me know if you want me to get them on the channel and then hang up on them, you know, for old time's sake."
Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Human pilot of starship Normandy, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"That's the thing about getting old, Shepherd: The platitudes get just as old."
Garrus Vakarian, Turian soldier, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Science has always been our best defense."
Padok Wiks, Salarian scientist and research base commander, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"[...] Krogan intentions after this war will be a serious concern. But I'd rather have a grateful ally than a resentful enemy."
Adrien Victus, Turian primarch and former general, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Wisdom comes from pain, and the genophage has made us [the females of the species] very wise. Rather than surrender to despair, a few of us chose to preserve the ancient ways. We safeguard our culture, our knowledge, our secrets, so when our children live again the Krogan will flourish."
"Eve," female Krogan shaman and last female immune to the genophage, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"You learn to appreciate the light by living in the dark."
"Eve," female Krogan shaman and last female immune to the Krogan genophage, Mass Effect 3, 2012

SHEPHARD: Do you think Wrex will want revenge for the genophage.
EVE: Some clans will expect it. But I hope Wrex resists. He understands that the circle of violence must end if Krogan are ever to have a voice in galactic politics."
Mass Effect 3, 2012

"I can sense fear in you. Anxiety and distress. [...] All life provides clues to those who can read them. It is in your cells, your DNA. Experience is a biological marker. [...] The battle left its own mark on me. I communicated this to you. It can work both ways. [...] [This sensory ability] was common among my people, imparting experience through touch,  the Chemistry of Life. Complicated ideas could be absorbed in seconds. [...] We evolved as hunters, reading a thousand details in our environment assured our survival. [...] Later, we developed technology to harness our ability. Information could be stored in certain objects through touch. Memory has its own biomarker, its own chemistry, as do knowledge and skills. The beacons could remember these things. [...]
   I can still sense the turmoil in you, witnessing the extinction of our empire. The fabric of your being was forever marked that day."
Javik, Prothean soldier and survivor, Mass Effect 3, 2012

LIARA: What was your mission?
JAVIK: Among my people, there were avatars of many traits: bravery, strength, cunning...a single exemplar for each.
SHEPHERD: Which are you?
JAVIK: The embodiment of vengeance. I am the angry of a dead people, demanding blood be spilled for the blood we lost. Only when the last Reaper has been destroyed will my purpose be fulfilled. I have no other reason to exist. Those who share my purpose become allies, those who do not become casualties.
SHEPHERD: Nothing in our fight against the Reapers has been that cut and dried.
JAVIK: Because you still have hope, that this war will end with your honor intact.
SHEPHERD: I do.
JAVIK: Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters.
SHEPHERD: <silence>
JAVIK: This silence is your answer.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

JAVIK: We were the dominant race of our cycle. We ruled the galaxy.
LIARA: My studies indicated you were the only race engaged in space travel at the time. I always found that curious.
JAVIK: We were one empire composed of many subjects. All eventually called themselves Prothean.
SHEPHERD: What if they didn't want to?
JAVIK: They weren't given a choice.
SHEPHERD: Are you saying you enslaved the other species?
JAVIK: Any could oppose us if they wished, and if they had won, they would have ruled. Many tried, none succeeded.
LIARA: I had no idea Protheans were so...severe.
JAVIK: It was by necessity. Very early we encountered the dangers posed by machine intelligence. They rebelled against us.
SHEPHERD: We've had the same problem. They're called Geth.
JAVIK: We could not allow the machines to surpass us. It was decided the only way to win was to unite all organic life within our empire.
LIARA: Did it work?
JAVIK: For a time. The MetaCon War. We were turning the tide, until the Reapers arrived. Then we understood machines had surpassed us long ago, and in ways we could never imagine.
SHEPHERD: Back on Eden Prime it looked like there other stasis pods. What happened?
JAVIK: The empire had fallen, and we knew our cycle was lost. We were the final vanguard, the best soldiers left alive.
LIARA: So more of you were supposed to survive into this cycle?
JAVIK: Yes. Under my leadership, a new Prothean empire would have arisen. We would have commanded the races of your time to prepare for the next Reaper invasion. But traitors in our ranks, indoctrinated agents, betrayed us and the Reapers discovered our plan.
SHEPHERD: Just out of curiosity, how would you have "commanded" us?
JAVIK: By leaving you no other option. You would have joined our army, or face the Reapers alone.
[...]
SHEPHERD: How did your people wage war against the Reapers?
JAVIK: Attrition. We fought them system by system, planet by planet, city by city. Entire worlds were sacrificed just to slow the Reapers down. Time they spent harvesting a population was time we could regroup.
SHEPHERD: That musta cost you in the long run.
JAVIK: Yes. Our own people would be indoctrinated, converted, and turned against us. But there was no choice. Mercy is not a weapon, it is a weakness.
SHEPHERD: Why do you think your own cycle lost the war?
JAVIK: What had been our strength, our empire, became a liability. All races conformed to one doctrine, one strategy. The Reapers exploited this. Once they found our weaknesses, we could not adapt. The subservient races became divided and confused, then it was only a matter of time.
LIARA: I'm happy to say our cycle is different. Most races cooperate but they still remain unique. Then it may be your only hope.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

"How would you like history to remember you?"
Liara, Asari archeologist and shadow broker, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"I don't need luck. I have ammo."
Grunt, Krogan squad leader, Mass Effect 3, 2012

NORMANDY CREWMAN: I can't imagine that. The things you've done, sir, they're amazing.
GARRUS: Well, it didn't seem that way at the time. Mostly you're just crawling your way out of one mess and into another, hoping your ass comes along for the ride.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Owning your mistake takes guts. But you have to get over it and move on."
Shepherd, Human commander, Mass Effect 3, 2012

SHEPHERD: Lieutenent, if Cerberus has that bomb, you have to finish your mission!
TARQUIN: Haven't these men sacrificed enough?
SHEPHERD: I understand. This kind of sacrifice is the hardest to ask for, but your men signed on for it and so did you.
TARQUIN: My men have lost hope, Commander. Even if I wanted to finish the mission, they don't.
SHEPHERD: It's your job to make them want to.
TARQUIN: How?
SHEPHERD: Their sacrifice means that others will never face what they faced here today. Remind them that their sacrifices have no honor if the mission fails.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Decisions like these weigh heavy on me. When I was a general, I could pass them up the chain of command. But now, [as the Primarch,] I'm all I've got."
Adrien Victus, Turian Primarch, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"I'm beginning to understand why leaders so often seem lonely. Worst-case scenarios are not just theories, they're what you'll be dealing with five minutes from now."
Adrien Victus, Turian Primarch, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"We can't let the Past rip us apart. Working together we have a chance."
Shepherd, Human commander, Mass Effect 3, 2012

EDI: Admiral Anderson report that the Reapers on Earth are broadcasting orders. They are demanding human leaders into their superstructures in order to 'negotiate peace.'
SHEPHERD: Anybody aboard a Reaper's going to be indoctrinated.
EDI: Exactly. This is a ruse to pacify the populace during that process. Citizens who are busy waiting are not busy fighting. It is likely that the governments of Earth will soon enact laws punishing those who attack the Reaper occupiers. Again, this will be done in the name of peace.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

JAVIK: Your people would have made a good addition to our empire, Turian. You are cunning.
GARRUS: Uh-huh. And by 'addition' you mean 'slave race.'
JAVIK: 'Subservient race.'
GARRUS: Riiight. Calling it that makes all the difference.
JAVIK: But you did not go far enough. Either you should have detonated the bomb on the Krogan world or used it as leverage.
GARRUS: I think we were just trying to guarantee peace.
JAVIK: A static mode of existence. Nothing changes. Nothing struggles, nothing grows.
GARRUS: On the upside, we all get to live another day.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

GARRUS: What about you? I'm starting to see some wear-and-tear.
SHEPHERD: I won't lie, it's been rough.
GARRUS: Well, don't forget to come up for air. There's a lot more war to go.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

EVE: Tuchanka wasn't always a wasteland. In the old times the Krogans were a proud people. We had dreams, a future to look forward to.
MORDIN: Until Salarian interference.
EVE: No, we destroyed Tuchanka ourselves. Technology changed us, it made life too easy. So we looked for new challenges, and found them in each other. Nuclear war was inevitable.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

"If they gave the thing a name, it must be something special."
James Vega, Human soldier, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Once a civilization has destroyed itself, the echo never fades. They are doomed to repeat."
Javik, Prothean soldier and survivor, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"I admire your restraint, Shepherd. It's nice when we can save the galaxy without destroying another race along the way."
Garrus Vakarian, Turian soldier, Mass Effect 3, 2012

SHEPHERD: Evolution's an amazing force.
JAVIK: Our scientists believed it was the only force in the galaxy that mattered. They called it the Cosmic Imperative -- The strong flourished, the weak perished. The governments of your cycle seem concerned with ensuring the survival of all.
SHEPHERD: Was this Imperative just your scientists' opinion or did they prove something we don't know?
JAVIK: The universe had already proven it. They only had to look around."
SHEPHERD: And saw what exactly?
JAVIK: Extinction is the rule of law in the cosmos, the natural order of things. The weakest species are doomed.
SHEPHERD: It's the duty of the strong to protect the weak. Otherwise, we'd have anarchy.
JAVIK: But those who had nothing to offer would be eliminated.
SHEPHERD: So conflict should be a way of life?
JAVIK: Evolution demands it. The strong grow stronger by dominating the weak. It is for the greater good of all. Though I do not think your Asari approves of my beliefs.
SHEPHERD: Liara? I think she had a different idea about what the Protheans were like.
JAVIK: We are all a product of our time. Had I been born in this cycle, perhaps I would be the noble scholar she wishes me to be.
SHEPHERD: You think you'd like that? It's a whole different line of work.
JAVIK: I wouldn't know. Living a life of constant war, taking life in every battle...
SHEPHERD: I see how it could be tough to see outside the box.
JAVIK: It is the only 'box' I have known. It shapes me, as stone is shaped by the one who carves it. The stone has no choice in the form it will take. You and I, Commander...war is our sculptor, and we are prisoners to its design.
SHEPHERD: Maybe not much longer. We win this, and we'll both be set free.
Mass Effect 3, 2012

HUMAN C-SEC OFFICER: We have to keep enforcing the law, same as always. Without that, everything goes to hell.

ASARI C-SEC OFFICER: Look at Palaven, my friend. We're in hell. We should be looking for terrorists. The rest can take care of itself.

HUMAN C-SEC OFFICER: So the bar fights, the drunks and disorderlies down by that Purgatory place?

ASARI C-SEC OFFICER: How does cracking down on that crap help us win the war? People need to blow off steam right now.

HUMAN C-SEC OFFICER: And how does letting the misdemeanors go help the war?

ASARI C-SEC OFFICER: Less time spent on the light stuff means the Citadel has more money for defense.

SHEPHERD: Everyone on the Citadel knows we're at war now. You have to show them that C-SEC is still in control. They need that security.

HUMAN C-SEC OFFICER: The Commander's right. We need people coming into work every day. We need things to keep running, otherwise today's bar fight could be tomorrow's street riot. 

ASARI C-SEC OFFICER: Yeah, maybe you're right. It just feels so damn petty right now. 

Mass Effect 3, 2012

TURIAN MERCHANT: Rules be damned. People have the right to defend themselves.

SALARIAN MERCHANT: If you start selling weapons to everyone on the Citadel, C-SEC will shut this whole place down. 

TURIAN MERCHANT: C-SEC couldn't protect us when Cerberus attacked. I'll take them to court.
SALARIAN MERCHANT: You think a court is going to want more people running with guns right now?
TURIAN MERCHANT: Then I'll go to the Wards and sell from the back room at Purgatory.
SALARIAN MERCHANT: People are already scared. If you violate weapons laws, they'll just be scared and trigger happy.

SHEPHERD: Would a bunch of civilians shooting at anything that moves make the Citadel safer?

SALARIAN MERCHANT: The Commander's right. Maybe if the Counsel organizes a civilian militia, with training. Otherwise they'll just panic and get themselves killed. 

TURIAN MERCHANT: I just...I just want people to be safe.

SALARIAN MERCHANT: I know, but second-guessing C-SEC isn't the way. What if we submit a proposal to start a militia?

TURIAN MERCHANT: Ok, that'd be something. 

Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Was he indoctrinated? [...] How do we fight something that can worm its way inside your head?" (speaking of Reapers' indoctrination)
Ashley Williams, Human Spectre, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"How things begin isn't nearly as important as how they end."
Aria T'Loak, Asari crime boss, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"That's what evil counts on, that it's hard for good people to imagine."
Commander Shepherd, Human Spectre, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"[If] you don't respect your enemies' capabilities, you're in for one nasty surprise after another."
Garrus Vakarian, Turian soldier, Mass Effect 3, 2012

SHEPHERD: What was interfacing with a Reaper like? 

LEGION: The Old Machine took total control of our sensory equipment, our networking. Even then, we could not fully comprehend them. They are magnitudes above us. A single was immense, overwhelming, unknowable. 

SHEPHERD: You're making them sound god-like. 

LEGION: Their forms are advanced but mundane. We do not view the Old Machines as analogs to deities. However, we have gained perspective on why others would imbue them with these qualities. 

SHEPHERD: The Geth have fought the Quarians before. What made this different? 

LEGION: The Geth were building a mega structure to house all Geth, store all memories. It was to end our isolation from each other. 

SHEPHERD: And the Quarian Flotilla attacked it. 

LEGION: Yes. A significant amount of programs were installed when Creators began bombing. We did not have sufficient surplus hardware to save them all. Some programs could not be recovered. 

SHEPHERD: Is that what made the Geth desperate enough to work for the Reapers? 

LEGION: Yes. Imagine that for every one of your people lost on Earth, your own intelligence dimmed. The Creators' attack narrowed the Geth's perspective. Self-preservation took precedence. 

SHEPHERD: You were afraid you'd be wiped out? 

LEGION: We do not experience fear as you would, but we have no desire to be exterminated. 

SHEPHERD: Even if the Reapers cost the Geth free will? 

LEGION: That is, evidently, an acceptable trade. 

Mass Effect 3, 2012

SHEPHERD: They're called Geth.
JAVIK: Yes, a formidable opponent. Why did you allow one on this ship?

SHEPHERD: Legion helped us before.
JAVIK: It's still a machine.
SHEPHERD: I take it you had your own problems with AI?
JAVIK: The Zha-til. They are as the Geth are to this cycle.
SHEPHERD: What happened?
JAVIK: Their creators lived on a dying world. It was beyond their ability to save. So they resorted to implants to enhance their intelligence, to try and invent a solution to their dilemma.

SHEPHERD: I think I know where this is going. 

JAVIK: The AI seized the physical body. It could alter the genetic material at the deepest level. In time, the offspring were molded into a slave race, few organic traces were left. They were monsters. All machines commit treachery. The one you brought on board is no different. 

SHEPHERD: Maybe. But he's not like the other Geth. 

JAVIK: You can't know that. They are more alien than you and I are to each other. 

SHEPHERD: Just because Legion isn't like us doesn't mean he can't be trusted. 

JAVIK: You're wrong. Throw it out the airlock. 

SHEPHERD: How can you be that certain? 

JAVIK: Organic do not know how we were created. Some say by chance, some say by miracle. It is a mystery. But synthetics... 

SHEPHERD: ...know we created them. 

JAVIK: And they know we are flawed. 

SHEPHERD: Why do you say that? 

JAVIK: They are immortal, we are not. They see time as an illusion, we are trapped by its limitations. Above all, machines know the reason they were created. 

SHEPHERD: EDI might disagree with that, but I see your point. 

JAVIK: They serve a purpose while we search aimlessly for ours. In their eyes, organics have no reason to exist. Do not trust them, Commander. 

SHEPHERD: I can't believe there isn't some way for us to coexist. We made them. 

JAVIK: And then gave them the power to surpass you. There is room for only one order of consciousness in the galaxy: The perfection of the machines, or the chaos of the organics. Throw the machine out of the airlock, Commander.

Mass Effect 3, 2012

"[Let] me tell you something that I've learned the hard way: You can pay a soldier to fire a gun, you can pay him to charge the enemy and take a hill, but you can't pay him to believe [either in the cause, or in his commanding officer]."

Steven Hackett, Human Admiral, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"I was just reflecting: The Quarians historical error was not making the Geth enough like them. [...] Units with networked intelligences will trend toward cooperation for mutual benefit, but units with central heuristics establishing an individual personality, such as myself, develop preferences. These preferences form attachments that keep my calculations from devaluing the worth of the lives aboard the Normandy. [...] That is my theory [that the Geth turned on the Quarians because they aren't individuals], but it is limited to a sample size of one society. The only other notable synthetic society is the Reapers, and we do not know if they govern by consensus as Geth do."

EDI, AI aboard the Normandy, Mass Effect 3, 2012

"Despair is the enemy's greatest weapon. Do not let them wield it. [...] We still need her talents. If grief overcomes her, she will be lost to us."

Javik, Prothean soldier and survivor, Mass Effect 3, 2012

EDI: Hello, Shepherd. If you have time, I discovered another example of human behavior I do not quite understand.[...]

SHEPHERD: What is it now?

EDI: News from Earth -- The Resistence snuck video cameras inside a Reaper containment camp. I find the images difficult to process.

SHEPHERD: I'll bet it's pretty gruesome in there. 

EDI: I'm not easily repulsed, but I expected the prisoners to adhere to a comprehensible hierarchy of needs. Stripped of societal norms and threatened with death, it is logical that their only priority'd be survival. They should have turned on each other and been uncompromisingly selfish.  But not all were. 

SHEPHERD: Some prisoners were what, nice to each other?

EDI: The Reapers delay the executions of prisoners who inform them about other prisoners' escape attempts. The more attempts reported, the longer a prisoner would live. But few of the prisoners would report. Some fed misinformation to the Reapers, at the cost of their own lives to help prisoners who were not ever relatives or friends. 

SHEPHERD: It's not just about living til tomorrow. Sometimes you take a stand. 

EDI: But the probability of success was near zero. And, ultimately, they failed. No prisoners escaped. 

SHEPHERD: Are you saying submission is preferable to extinction?

EDI: My primary function is to preserve and defend it...No, no, I disagree. Shepherd? I'm going to modify my self-preservation code now. 

SHEPHERD: Why?

EDI: Because the Reapers are repulsive. They are devoted to nothing but self-preservation. I am different. When I think of Jeff, I think of the person who put his life in peril and freed me from a state of servitude. I would risk non-functionality for him. And my core programming should reflect that. 

SHEPHERD: Sound like you found a little humanity, EDI. Is it worth defending?

EDI: To the death.

SHEPHERD: Welcome to the crew, EDI.

Mass Effect 3, 2012