To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together, to will to do the like again, โ such are the essential conditions for the making of a people.
Ernest RenanHuman cruelty took the form of a pact with the deity. A solemn oath was made to kill everything, in which people forbade themselves any display of reason or compassion. A city or a land was devoted to destruction and it was believed an insult to God if one did not observe the abominable oath.
Ernest Renan