Chisel this in stone and put it on your mantle.

If you imagine that you can buy immunity from fanatics by curling yourself in a ball, apologising for the world - to the world - for who you are and what you stand for and what you believe in, not only is that morally bankrupt, but it's also ineffective. Because fanatics despise a lot of things and the things they despise most is weakness and timidity. There has been plenty of evidence through history that fanatics attack weakness and retreating people even more savagely than they do defiant people.

-- John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia

Via Instapundit

What a welcome sentiment after a day of listening to phoney indignation over Karl Rove's mention of Joe Wilson's wife!