'If you want to be more than a victim of circumstances you're going to have to develop a capacity, and a willingness, to do harm.' Agree or disagree?

In general, probably. If you don't learn to fight back, you're going to take a lot more Ls than you need to. It doesn't necessarily have to be physical harm either.

But there's an important distinction between being assertive and being aggressive that I think people need to really delineate. You can stand up for yourself without attacking or harming another. Let them know where they wronged you and there's a chance they will realize their mistake. I find that more often than not, people aren't really out to harm you as much as they're just stupid and ignorant and fail to realize the error of their ways.

You can remedy a fair amount of conflict by simply talking it through. You don't have to immediately go to war. That said, a quote I tend to live my life by is 'si vis pacem, para bellum'. Some people can't be reasoned with