- "Tell me something, Mr. Guthrie. Do you have gossip here?" - "Gossip?" - "I've often wondered if it can survive in so remote a location. You see, gossip is what holds civilization together: it reinforces shame, and without shame... well, the world is a very dangerous place."
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- " That man Hume, the captain of the Scarborough, told you as much. When a king brands us pirates, he doesn't mean to make us adversaries; he doesn't mean to make us criminals. He means to make us monsters. For that's the only way his God-fearing, taxpaying subjects can make sense of men who keep what is theirs and fear no one. When I say there's a war coming, I don't mean with the Scarborough; I don't mean with King George or England. Civilization is coming and it means to exterminate us."
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- "So this is the lesson... the pirates of New Providence Island are incorrigible, dedicated to mayhem: to attempt to address this subject is doomed to defeat from the outset." - "It's not him I wanted you to see; it's them [the crowd]." Civilization needs its monsters." - "You think Whitehall wants piracy to flourish in the Bahamas?" - "No, I don't think they want it, but I think they're aware of the cost associated with trying to fight it. And I think that that sound travels. You're an educated man, my Lord, but I think it worth reminding you that in most cases a man trying to change the world fails for one simple and unavoidable reason... everyone else."
