She was one of those people who discredited their own ideas by the force with which they argued them. - Michael Swanwick

What you propose to do today is to bring civilization to a lawless corner of the world. I know that you claim more modest ambitions. But when the protection of law is extended to the innocent and weak, that is civilization. Now I hold that in the natural state, there are only two kinds of people in the world—the men with guns, and the victims. And the one kind feeds off the other.

People will believe in just about any kind of superstitious crap nowadays.

It was classic cult behavior: the charismatic leader whose word was law, the unreasoning obedience, the pervasive fear.