# Quote — Michael Moorcock, The Steel Tsar

> It remained difficult for me to understand how some people are simply born mentally deformed, lacking all the natural moral restraints and imagination which dictate the actions of most of us, however partially. Such creatures have learned from childhood to ape the appropriate sentiments when it suits them, to charm or bully their opponents, to agree to anything, to tell any lie and to pursue their own ends with implacable determination.
>
> “Such men and women are the true aliens amongst you and it is ironic how frequently we come to rule you. We use your very best instincts and deepest emotions against you. We convince you that we alone can satisfy your need for security and comfort and then we drain you dry of everything save perpetual terror. Ha, ha, ha!”

- Author: [Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md)
- Book: [The Steel Tsar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar.md)
- Page: 389
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Steel_Tsar_(1981)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar/it-remained-difficult

## More from this book

> Here the idea of God has been replaced by the idea of the Future. The two notions are, admittedly, all but identical in the way in which they are self-contradictory and thus always fundamentally confusing to their worshippers, who must look to priests for translation, and so inevitably the priests (or whatever they call them) gradually take power...

p. 413 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar/here-the-idea.md)

> Unlike so many politicians or military leaders they made no attempt to justify their mistakes, to cling to power. For them power held enormous responsibility and was merely invested in them temporarily.

p. 370 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar/unlike-so-many.md)

> “We are still ruled, in some ways, by our Church. We are a people more cursed by religion and its manifestations and assumptions than any other. The Steel Tsar, with his messianic socialism, offers us religion again, perhaps. You English have never had quite the same need for God. We have known despair and conquest too often to ignore Him altogether.” He shrugged. “Old habits, Mr Bastable. Religion is the panacea for defeat. We have a great tendency to rationalize our despair in mystical and utopian terms.”

p. 361 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-steel-tsar/we-are-still.md)