The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.
Joseph Brodsky's commencement address at Williams College (1984), as quoted in Robert Inchausti "Thinking through Thomas Merton: Contemplation for Contemporary Times" (p. 110), 2014.
