“People can rationalize anything”
The Guilty“People can rationalize anything” is a recurring moral formulation associated with Will Robie. Its later repetition turns his observation about self-justification into an echo: the idea returns as a way to frame serious wrongdoing, without making the reasoning behind it an excuse.
First Formulation
A speaker recalls Will Robie’s claim that people can justify what they do, applying the principle to grave moral transgressions. The exchange presents rationalization as a broad human capacity: people can construct reasons for conduct that would otherwise be difficult to defend.
Later Recall
Later, another speaker tells Robie, “Like you said, people can rationalize anything.” The brief reprise explicitly credits the thought to him and shifts its wording from justification to rationalization. That change keeps the central idea intact while stressing the stories people tell themselves to make their actions seem acceptable.
