“We have excellent nerves; we know how not to flinch when faced with beatings and executions.
We have amazing self-control; we’re capable of putting up with the blathering of the most hopeless idiots.
We’ve forgotten how to be fastidious—we can make do with dishes that, according to the custom, have been licked by dogs and then wiped with a dirty hem for the sake of beauty.
We’re fantastic impersonators—even in our dreams we do not speak the languages of Earth.
We have a foolproof weapon—the basis theory of feudalism, developed in quiet offices and laboratories, at dusty archaeological digs, in thoughtful discussions.”
(...)
“Let us remain humane, forgive everyone, and be calm like the gods.
Let them slaughter and desecrate, we’ll be calm like the gods.
The gods need not hurry, they have eternity ahead.”
— Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Hard to be a God