"His mother had been the world to him, and although she had done her best to prepare him, he had been too young to ful…"

"The oaths were no more than a formal deterrent to troublemaking, but they were better than no deterrent at all."

"He did not entirely believe himself, but he knew he had best pretend he did."

"“We have thought you were too rule-abiding to be a good ruler—a paradox, you see—but perhaps we were wrong.” “But you…"

"“It is not foolish,” Dachensol Polchina agreed. “It is new, which is not the same thing.”"

"They took silence for assent, as the zealous often do."

"He could tell by the quality of her silence that she did not believe him, but if there was an advantage to being empe…"

"“It is the nature of all persons to hold on to power when they have it,” Shulivar said. “Thus it stagnates and become…"

"Would you end war? Create great Peace."

"To be a god First I must be a god-maker: We are what we create."