"Are you actually arguing that we should've let people get robbed, mass-murdered, infested by alien parasites, conquered, and enslaved, just to toughen them up? You think all the attempts on the part of the bad guys didn't?"

He was playing hardball now.

"You came from a nasty place. I can tell that much from everything you've said. I get that. I also appreciate what you did to help me, I really do, but you have your way of looking at the universe and I have mine, and while I can't argue, for sure, that mine is right in all places, at all times, yours is wrong when it comes to my world and the people in it. I've seen too much of them, at their best, and at their worst, to not know that at least some of them are worth being saved."

He went on, "I also know from experience that someday you being a cynical little weasel is going to blow up in your face, just like my being an idealistic moron is going to do the same, because that's just how life works. Neither one of them is a shield against reality. Expecting bad things to happen doesn't save you from them. Expecting the worst of people doesn't stop them from doing the worst."