The man in the factory who has had to batter his way up through life in order to exist; the woman in the household, fending for her husband, her children; wary of deceit and false-dealing and bullying in the course of her busy day, know (and knew) instinctively that the bully must be met with instant repulse or he multiplies his own violence. A placated bully is a hand-fed bully. A Chamberlain, creeping home under the protection of his umbrella, tricked and ridiculed by the enemy, mouthing the peace-in-our-time fallacy, can cause the destruction of our world; and nearly did. One thing I’ve learned in life; you cannot placate the power-mad. You must — to paraphrase an old saying — take the bully by the horns. Early.
Edna Ferber (1886-1968) American author and playwright
A Kind of Magic: An Autobiography (1963)
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