Science is--or should be--the greenest force of all. - Kim Stanley Robinson

Plague was plague, and could not be treated lightly. And this plague was obviously worse than most, having killed everyone in the region.

In the next meeting they were arguing about the limits to tolerance, the things that simply wouldn’t be allowed no matter what religious meaning anyone gave them, and someone shouted, “Tell that to the Muslims!”

Rituals should have some unpleasantness, or you don’t appreciate them properly.