“The most dangerous identity is that of victim. Once we see ourselves as victims, we can clearly identify a enemy. Steeped in our own victimhood, we no longer feel bound by moral considerations in becoming perpetrators.”

“It is easy to sanctify policies or identities by the deaths of victims. It is less appealing, but morally more urgent, to understand the actions of the perpetrators. The moral danger, after all, is never that one might become a victim but that one might be a perpetrator or a bystander.”

“Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.”

“We are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world.”

“Victims. Victims of a transitional period of morality. That is what we both certainly are.”

“When we feel like victims, all our actions and beliefs are legitimised, however questionable they may be. Our opponents, or simply our neighbours, stop sharing common ground with us and become our enemies. We stop being aggressors and become defenders. The envy, greed or resentment that motivates us becomes sanctified, because we tell ourselves we're acting in self-defence. Evil, menace, those are always the preserve of the other.”