Anton

“The beast that was civilization ever faced forward, and in making its present world it devoured the world to come. It was an appalling truth that one’s own children could be so callously sacrificed to immediate comforts, yet this was so and it had always been so.”
― Steven Erikson, Dust of Dreams

“And what’s the difference between us, that you’ll brush his sins aside and not my own?”
Maati smiled. “You aren’t him,” he said.
“And you love him.”
Maati took a pose of affirmation.
“And love is more important than justice,” Seedless said.
“Sometimes. Yes.”
Seedless smiled and nodded.
“What a terrible thought,” he said. “That love and injustice should be married.”
― Daniel Abraham, A Shadow in Summer

“It's the simple truth that mortal men cannot understand why the gods shape events as they do. Why some men and women are cut off in fullest flower, while others live to dwindle into shadows of themselves. Why virtue must sometimes be trampled and evil flourish amidst the beauty of a country garden. Why chance, sheer random chance, plays such an overwhelming role in the life lines and fate lines of men.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana

“The problem with sending messages was that people responded to them, which meant one had to write more messages in reply.”
― Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire