In all that follows I adopt the standpoint, therefore, that the inclination to aggression is an original, self-subsisting instinctual disposition in man, and I return to my view that it constitutes the greatest impediment to civilization.
The element of truth behind all this, which people are so ready to disavow, is that men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved...; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness.
The first requisite of civilization, therefore, is that of justice--that is, the assurance that a law once made will not be broken in favor of an individual.