It is quite normal to see good intentions, when not carried out with moderation, urging men to actions which are truly vicious.

Men see what they expect to see,

Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish

Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. (Roughly: It's easy for men to believe what they want to.)

When all else fails, men turn to reason.

It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities, to justify the most iniquitous opinions; and the judges never fail of decreeing accordingly.

men’s actions are the best guides to their thoughts

Men of conservative temperament have long suspected that one thing leads to another.

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.

There is nothing namable but that some men will, or undertake to, do it for pay.

Surely there is nothing so ungracious, nor nothing so cruel, but men will hold therewith, if it be once approved by custom.

It was a needless precaution, I felt sure, but men always enjoy marching around with weapons and flexing their figurative muscles, and I saw no reason to deny them this harmless exercise.

Thus men who are naturally conscious of what they are shun nothing, so much as rest; they would do anything to be disturbed.

Some men ease themselves like setting hens into the nest of death.