[Cicero]

Is there a great difference? I don't take your point. My point was the Steyn quote, not the bin Ladin quote.

[ontos-on]

Unless I am wrong, Steyn did not say "most people" did he. I checked the article before I posted and I saw Steyn only quote Bin Laden and that is what I posted. The difference is big. One is a statement about people per se; and this is accentuated by the further claim that they do it "by nature".

Your language changes that and presents it as an empirical assessment subject to further evidence and questioning. These two approaches make all the difference in the world as to confidence and the basis for the assertion.