Some said curiosity was the driving force behind human progress, and the spirit of science was this: you had to try it before you knew whether it was truth.
Even though synthesizing new elements might create a nuclear bomb, scientists still tried. Fortunately, no problems had arisen so far; otherwise, people living ordinary lives might have been forced into an accident that had nothing to do with them.
Like war. The War of the Spanish Succession was a struggle for power between rulers. Ordinary villagers might never have had the chance to see a king in their entire lives, yet they were still dragged into a war that had nothing to do with them.
One person would probably need a lifetime to produce 5.5 tons of urine. Brant needed a lousy excuse to collect the urine of so many people.
Those people probably never dreamed that one day, their waste would be displayed before kings and university professors.
Schopenhauer said that human actions had only three driving forces:
A. Self-interest: hoping for one's own happiness. Self-interest knew no limits.
B. Malice: hoping for others to suffer. It could develop into acts of extreme cruelty.
C. Compassion: hoping for others to be happy. It could develop into acts of extreme generosity, nobility, and selflessness.
Everyone's actions could be attributed to one of those three motives, or sometimes two.
A person could make themselves happy by hurting others, and some could make themselves happy through generosity and selflessness, but few could be malicious and compassionate at the same time.
It was a psychology full of contradictions, yet it had appeared in Severus.
Harry Potter was James Potter's son, the son of Severus Snape's enemy, so he used malicious means against Harry Potter.
Yet Harry was also Lily's child. Harry had lost his