"Rousseau and his disciples were resolved to force men to be free; in most of the world, they triumphed; men are set free from family, church, town, class, guild; yet they wear, instead, the chains of the state, and they expire of ennui or stifling lonelines."

"Human nature being irremediably flawed, so that all of us in some degree rebel against the people and the institutions to which we owe most, there is in every man a certain impulse to make himself God: that is, to cast off all authority but his own lust and whim. From this vice comes the corrupting influence of total power upon even the best of natures. The rebellion of Lucifer is the symbol of this ancient anarchic impulse—the passion for overthrowing the just authority of God, that upon the vacant throne of authority the rebel may make himself absolute."

"Night, the dark widow, came walking on the hills."

"It was as easy to be alone with six kin as it is to be alone by yourself, and maybe easier."

"Kernik had stumbled on an immutable truth, a truth older than the world. Priests claimed the gods made men, but this was not so. Men made the gods. Firstly, by forming them in clay, by chipping them from stone. Secondly, and more importantly, by believing in them, believing in them utterly."

"Who knew? If the illusion is quite perfect, who is to say it is not real?"

"“Well now,” he said, “was I as good as you were when you were me?”"

"The sun in his golden chariot had driven almost to the last meadow of the sky."

"When a road is very dark it is hard to see the milestones on it."

"“‘Not everything that walks is a man,’” said the boulder conversationally, “‘and not everything that lies quiet is a stone,’ as the wolf remarked when the serpent bit him.”"

"It was, therefore, the sort of loveliness which is not perfect, but draws its charm from a measure of imbalance, which can accommodate flaws and make little of them, for a while at least."

"In the desert, initially, everywhere is like everywhere else—sky, sand, mountains. So far, this was the extent of what I’d seen in my involuntary roost. Then the day began to ebb, the world turned to topaz and gold, and the color of the sky seemed to sink away into the disc of the sun. I found I really could touch the beauty of it then, as I had touched its beauty so long ago when I was free to travel where I wished, and the city still owned me. Now, tinged with my sorrow, the loveliness was bittersweet, but strong as wine."

"Somewhere in me was a rod of steel to which I clung. I’d had a vision, as good as any vision given to any poet, sage, or prophet in the past. I wasn’t elated, I wasn’t confident even, but somehow, I knew, and with the end of doubt had come the death of despair."

"I see you laugh, and rightly so. What is this silly old fool rambling on about? Good for you. Never respect years, only deeds."

"They were very careful and kind. So careful and kind it was positively tactless and spiteful."

"Tonight it was to be a play for aristocrats to watch, concerning gods and shepherds; it was the humble villages that clamored for princesses and emperors."

"I began to feel lighthearted. Don’t ever do that; it tempts some dark and evil force abroad in the universe."

"“Like most loners,” said Moddik, “you carry the seeds of violent authority. Loners need to be bossy. They quickly learn it’s the only method they have of shoving people off their backs.”"

"Men think for themselves when they’re men."

"Thinta flew safely, and I realized how much I preferred being with Hergal and feeling the blood drain out of my head with fright. Actually when I’m with Hergal I always realize how much I prefer being with Thinta and not feeling the blood drain out of my head with fright."

"“I have a plan,” said Xaros, “improbable only in its genius.”"

"Anyhow, I arrived, and I did feel pretty weird, actually, as if I’d left something behind. My head or something."

"A day out from the bay of Saardos, Drokler honored the brass Rorn god in the prow with a pound of incense. The blank god mask stared back at them through the pall of sweet blue smoke....It gazed in myopic stillness out over the long shock of the waves, ignoring their words, their presence, their costly offering."

"What a son I’ve made. The midwives must have turned me in my labor so that I lay on your brain and crushed it."

"“Can I appeal?” “Oh yes.” “Will it do any good?” “None whatsoever.”"

"There was no room in him for curiosity; The capacity for observation had long since starved on the aridness of his soul."

"“Anackire asks nothing because she needs nothing, being everything,” Raldnor said tightly, using a quotation of the temple. The Ommos laughed gently and shook his head. “Such undemanding gods.”"

"“I think Kathaos fears no divine forces.” “Then he’s a brave man.” “Oh, men make their own gods,” Yannul remarked. “I have a god with a fat belly, and a house full of expensive women to attend his every need, and I call him Yannul the Lan in Five Years from This.”"

"“Is it the regency you want, or me?” “The regency. You, sweetheart, are the worthless dross that comes with it.”"

"A man hunted only for food or clothing or in self-defense. It was another mark of the effete and the sadistic to take life as a sport."

"“Sorry,” I said sweetly, “I’m the new one with the quick temper and the uncontrollable homicidal tendencies.”"

"They say the promise of a witch is like a plain woman, seldom remembered."

"Such an accusation is as stupid as it is absurd."

"I am alone. No one stands beside me. I have no Dark Prince to ride in my chariot, to walk with me, to hold me to him. I have no one. And yet. I myself, at last, I have myself. And to me, at this time, it seems enough. It seems more, much more, than enough."

"True beauty is always oddly surprising."

"I cried out. I turned the pages, one after the other, in a frenzy. I could not believe what I saw, would not believe it. For the pages of the book were blank. Oh, yes, there had been writing, this much I could see, but the inks had faded. Now there were only faint smudges and marks here and there on the yellowness. And I could tell nothing from them… It came to me, as I walked, how bitter the irony of the Book had been which had said: Herein the Truth. For it had a truth of its own in its bleached barrenness. What was truth except something which faded, lost its shape, grew unreadable and indistinguishable, at last a blank page for men to write on what they wished."

"“All my life,” I said, “knowledge has come to me for which I was not ready.”"

"“When will they fight?” I asked. “Tomorrow. Daybreak. It is man’s work.” I laughed. “I too have fought and killed, Kotta. It is the work of fools, not men.”"

"We are the sum of our achievements, nothing more and nothing less. The mountain road which led us here was built by a dead people none of us would remember otherwise. What we create is the only part of us which can survive, or has the right to. Man is nothing, except to other men."

"Vazkor had picked his creatures well—narrow, unintelligent men, good fighters, unafraid because they had no imagination, loyal because they responded to their own sense, and until now, there had always been enough food and wine, women and prestige; trustworthy in this last extremity because the old order had been good to them, and Vazkor seemed able to restore it."

"“Uasti was a good teacher,” he said. “She made you look a little way into yourself, see what you could become.”"

"I would be a drudge now, among the tents, and I would kneel before the warriors, and run from them when they shouted at me. I would be a woman, as women were reckoned in this place, a half-souled, witless animal, created to bear and pleasure men: an afterthought of the god."

"And now, Uastis, get up. This room is architecturally designed to please the eye, and your present position mars it for me."

"Strange, that when we feel we understand all things, we understand nothing. Strange, that when we feel we understand nothing, we have begun, at last, to understand."

"I do not know why it distressed me so much to see an animal die when human death did not move me. Perhaps because they were more beautiful, and there is no corruption in them, while in the best of men there can always be found some guilt or wickedness which seems to have earned him death."

"I should have felt pity, but I felt only contempt. I knew had it been a girl she would have mourned less, and it angered me."

"“Don’t judge yourself,” he said. “None of us are ever good at it.”"