An excellent passage about how unwavering personal convictions overwhelms reason, common sense, and being decent to other human beings.

"Once self-supported by conscience, once embarked on a career of manifest usefulness, the true [insert religious fanatic here] never yields. Neither public nor private influences produce the slightest effect on us, when we have once got our mission. Taxation may be the consequence of a mission ; riots may be the consequence of a mission ; wars may be the consequence of a mission : we go on with our work, irrespective of every human consideration which moves the world outside us. We are above reason; we are above ridicule ; we see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own. Glorious, glorious privilege ! And how is it earned ? Ah, my friends, you may spare yourselves the useless inquiry ! We are the only people who can earn it -- for we are the only people who are always right."

-- Miss Drusilla Clack, from The Moonstone.

In other news, The Moonstone is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.