"Discipline is as much facing the enemy within as the enemy before you; for without critical judgement, the weapon you wield delivers — and let us not be coy here — naught but murder. And its first victim is the moral probity of your cause."

"A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilisation. Thus a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy."

"Mappo Trell, I believe motivations prove, ultimately, irrelevant. Upon either side of the battlefield the face grins with blunt stupidity, even as smoke fills the sky from horizon to horizon, even as crops whither and die, even as sweet land turns to salt. Inequity ends, Trell, when no-one and no thing is left standing."

"So much had changed inside him. He was no believer in causes, not any more. Certainty was an illusion, a lie. Fanaticism was poison in the soul, and the first victim in its inexorable, ever-growing list was compassion. Who could speak of freedom, when one's soul was bound in chains?"

"Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage."

"We are contrary creatures, us humans, but that isn't something we need be afraid of, or even much troubled by. And if you make a list of those people who worship consistency, you'll find they're one and all tyrants or would-be tyrants. Ruling over thousands, or over a husband or a wife, or some cowering child. Never fear contradiction, Cutter, it is the very heart of diversity."

"The world, Ahlrada Ahn knew, was indifferent to the necessity of preservation. Of histories, of stories layered with meaning and import. It cared nothing for what was forgotten, for memory and knowledge had never been able to halt the endless repetition of wilful stupidity that so bound peoples and civilizations."

"Oh," the figure settled back down, "those reasons. Well, yes. Clever, even. But still profoundly stupid."

"I mean the only thing us dead soldiers got in common is that none of us was good enough or lucky enough to survive the fight. We're a host of failures."

"Keep a watch out, fools! There are things out there and you know what happens when things arrive!"

"You cannot fight unreason, and as these dead multitudes will tell you — are telling you right now — certitude is the enemy."

"Indeed Bugg. is it because, do you think, at the human core, we are naught but liars and cheats?" "Probably." "With no hope of ever overcoming our instinctive nastiness?" "Hard to say. How have we done so far?"

""What war is this?" "A pointless one." "They are all pointless Denier. Subjugation and defeat breed resentment and hatred, and such things cannot be bribed away." "Unless the spirit of the defeated is crushed," Trull said."

"If one could always choose the right question, then every answer could be as obvious."

"Chaos needs no allies, for it dwells like a poison in every one of us."

"Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context."

"Civilization after civilization, it is the same. The world falls to tyranny with a whisper. The frightened are ever keen to bow to a perceived necessity, in the belief that necessity forces conformity, and conformity a certain stability. In a world shaped into conformity, dissidents stand out, are easily branded and dealt with. There is no multitude of perspectives, no dialogue. The victim assumes the face of the tyrant, self-righteous and intransigent, and wars breed like vermin. And people die."

"You leave me without hope," Brys said. "I am sorry for that. Do not seek to find hope among your leaders. They are the repositories of poison. Their interest in you extends only so far as their ability to control you. For you, they seek duty and obedience, and they will ply you with the language of stirring faith. They seek followers, and woe to those who question, or voice challenge."

"Death cannot be struggled against, brother. It ever arrives, defiant of every hiding place, of every frantic attempt to escape. Death is every mortal's shadow, his true shadow, and time is its servant, spinning that shadow slowly round, until what stretched behind one now stretches before him."

"Not that freedom ensured happiness. Indeed, to be free was to live in absence. Of responsibilities, of loyalties, of the pressures that expectation imposed."

"But now Apsalar was trying to tell him that competence was not justification. That necessity demanded its own path and there was no virtue to be found at its heart."

"The future can ever promise but one thing and one thing only: surprises."

"An army that waits is soon an army at war with itself."

"With ever greater frequency they annihilate themselves, for success breeds contempt for those very qualities that purchased it."

"From the sun-drenched south slopes of Gris, where grow the finest grapes this world has seen. Is mine an informed opinion, you are wondering? Most assuredly so, lass, since I hold a majority interest in said vineyards —"

"There's little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious thing, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself." "With words."

"Wise words are like arrows flung at your forehead. What do you do? Why, you duck of course."

"To grieve is the gift of the living — a gift so many of our kin have long lost"

"Memories belong in the soil, in stone, in wind. They are the land's unseen meaning, such that touches the soul of all who would look — truly look — upon it. Touches, in faintest whisper, old, almost shapeless echoes — to which a mortal life adds its own."

"Children were meant to be gifts. The physical manifestation of love between a man and a woman. And for that love all manner of sacrifice could be borne."

"'They've had a long time to think,' Paran murmured. 'Sometimes, that's all there's needed. The heart of wisdom is tolerance. I think.'"

"The tiger is humbled by memories of prey."

"As with most unwitting servants of the gods, once the game was done so was the servant’s life."

"A title as meaningless as the woman bearing it. The Empress—just another face she’d seen somewhere before, a mask behind which someone hid from mortality. “No use hiding,” she whispered, frowning down at the dead leaves and branches around her. “No use.”"

"The power he commanded insisted upon subjects. Strength was ever relative, and he could not dominate without the company of the dominated."

"He who would dominate must learn early that those resisting his command should be destroyed."

"Prediction had become a privilege now lost to her. Never mind the outside world, she could not even guess her own actions, or the course of her thoughts. Was this the true nature of emotion? she wondered. The great defier of logic, of control—the whims of being human. What lay ahead?"

"Through the gamut of life we struggled for control, for a means to fashion the world around us, an eternal, hopeless hunt for the privilege of being able to predict the shape of our lives."

"Have any of these thoughts been my own? Look at me—my every move seems a desperate search for someone to blame, always someone else. I’ve made being a tool of a god an excuse, a justification for not thinking, for simply reacting. And others have died for it."

"Paran shook his head, his only surprise the realization that nothing surprised him anymore."

"Nor would he recognize hope if it came to him. Too much a stranger, too long a ghost."

"Celebrating Gedderone’s Rite of Spring shouldn’t be an excuse to avoid the pressures of reality. It wasn’t just a harmless escape: it was a means of delaying the probable and making it inevitable."

"“The mewling, petty acts,” he’d say, “of a short-lived and short-sighted species, Crokus, can do nothing to mar the Great Cycles of Life.”"

"In the empty eyes of this child, he’d seen the withering of his own soul. The reflection had been unblemished, with no imperfections to challenge the truth of what he saw."

"He had nowhere to look for answers, and he was tired of asking questions."

"“The dead never interrupt,” said the mason, “they but arrive.”"

"“Tell me, Tool, what dominates your thoughts?” The Imass shrugged before replying. “I think of futility, Adjunct.” “Do all Imass think about futility?” “No. Few think at all.” “Why is that?” The Imass leaned his head to one side and regarded her. “Because, Adjunct, it is futile.”"

"Lorn stared at Tool. “Was that an attempt at humor?” she asked. The T’lan Imass adjusted his helmet. “That depends on your mood, Adjunct.”"

"“What do you mean by a tyrant?” “One whose blood was poisoned by the ambition to rule over others.”"

"Kallor said: “I walked this land when the T’lan Imass were but children. I have commanded armies a hundred thousand strong. I have spread the fire of my wrath across entire continents, and sat alone upon tall thrones. Do you grasp the meaning of this?” “Yes,” said Caladan Brood, “you never learn.”"