People can justify almost anything. That's why history keeps repeating itself.

from something I read

In the end is it not futile to try and follow the course of a quarrel between husband and wife? Such a conversation is sure to meander more than any other. It draws in tributary arguments and grievances from years before – all quite incomprehensible to any but the two people they concern most nearly. Neither party is ever proved right or wrong in such a case, or, if they are, what does it signify? 

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell