"The downfall of every civilization comes, not from the moral corruption of the common man, but rather from the moral complacency of common men in high places."

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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It...makes you think that after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded....Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it.

— Walter Bagehot