The majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. —Nicolo Machiavelli, Discourses, circa 1513–17
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51