A Human Strategy, Matt Berry aphorism 71
71
It is not difficult to find a man who accepts himself as a pincushion, and if he is under our care, we protect him from himself and from the others who must find something to prick, if for no other reason than to prove that they can prick.
This act — drawing our own sharp weapons and keeping the others at bay — is not duty. On the contrary, it is one of the pleasures of the flesh, for we too must prove that we can prick.