Kunal

“Finally, moralized infractions are punishable. If one believes that murder is wrong, one is not just entitled to see a murderer punished, but one is obligated to make it happen. One may not, as we say, let someone get away with murder. Now just substitute “idolatry” or “homosexuality” or “blasphemy” or “subversion” or “indecency” or “insubordination” for “murder,” and you can see how the human moral sense can be a major force for evil.”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

“no individual can afford to be the only honest one in a community of self-enhancers.89”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

“Though truth-telling sheds no blood, it requires a painful emotional sacrifice on the part of the confessors in the form of shame, guilt, and a unilateral disarmament of their chief moral weapon, the claim to innocence.”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

“I was reckless and foolhardy. I attacked without a plan, driven only by anger. I paid the price, didn’t I? My first defeat ever… And, my last battle, forever.”
― Amish Tripathi, Scion of Ikshvaku