Men never do evil so thoroughly and cheerfully as when they do it for conscience sake. РBlaise Pascal, Pens̩es, 1670

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast Table, 1872

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment. – Seneca