'...He saw through their lies and promises, but he also knew that they spoke to something nasty and squalid in the human spirit. Something in all of us, We want to hate those who are not like us. All we need is an excuse, a whisper in the ear.'
'Not all of us,' Floyd said.
'That's what a lot of good people said in the thirties,' Marguerite replied. 'That the message of hatred would only be heeded by the ignorant and those who were already filled with bile. But it wasn't like that. It took strength of mind not to let yourself be poisoned by those lies, and not everyone had that strength. Even fewer people had the courage to do something about it; to actually stand up to the hatemongers.'
'Was your husband one of those brave people?' Floyd asked.
'No,' she said. 'He wasn't. He was one of the millions who said and did nothing, and that's how he went to his grave.'
Alastair Reynolds(1966-): Century Rain(2004), 108-109.