C.S. LEWIS.

During the Second World War CS Lewis gave a
series of radio talks on the BBC. These talks were
subsequently published as "Mere Christianity".
In one talk on 'Forgiveness' Lewis said this:-

"Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in
the paper. Then suppose that something turns up
suggesting that the story might not be quite true,
or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's
first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite
so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment,
and even a determination to cling to the first story
for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as
bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am
afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed
to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is
beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If
we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to
see grey as black, and then to see white itself as
black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything -
God and our friends and ourselves included - as
bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be
fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.