A magnificent closing quote from the same page - could also stand as an obituary for many more recent struggles?

Of this hard childhood, this troubled adolescence, all those terrible years, I regret nothing as far as I am myself concerned. I am sorry for those who grow up in this world without ever experiencing the cruel side of it, without knowing utter frustration and the necessity of fighting, however blindly, for mankind. Any regret I have is only for the energies wasted in struggles which were bound to be fruitless. These struggles have taught me that, in any man, the best and the worst live side by side, and sometimes mingle -- and that what is worst comes through the corruption of what is best.

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami