"If we have become a people incapable of thought, then the brute-thought of mere power and mere greed will think for us. If we have become incapable of denying ourselves anything, then all that we have will be taken from us. If we have no compassion, we will suffer alone, we will suffer alone the destruction of ourselves. These are merely the laws of this world as know to Shakespeare, as known to Milton. When we cease from human thought, a low and effective cunning stirs in the most inhuman minds."
Wendell Berry, Sabbaths 2005 in LEAVINGS