The world may be mean, but people don’t have to be, not if they refuse. Mable in The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes–believes with all its heart–that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn't exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are. xx in The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

Sometimes a useful delusion is better than a useless truth. xx in The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead