Our hidden faults…

The great misfortune is that the justice of men always comes too late. It represses or stigmatizes certain acts, without ever tracing these either higher or farther back than the person who has committed them. But our hidden faults poison the air others breathe, and what results in a specific crime was first a germ carried about by some unsuspecting wretch; without this principle of corruption, the full fruit of the crime would never have ripened.

– George Bernanos, from The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel