Sign in with Facebook
“I like to let them talk things out, but fact isn’t a democratic process; if a thing isn’t true it isn’t true, even if everybody votes that it is.”
― Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
― Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
“(The world is full of idiots, and always has been. But sometimes I wonder why such a disproportionate quantity of them end up running other people’s lives.)”
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
“Everything changes, see above. Nothing changes more often, more rapidly or more radically than the past. Yesterday’s heroes are today’s villains. Yesterday’s eternal truths are today’s exploded myths. Yesterday’s right is today’s wrong, yesterday’s good is today’s evil. And tomorrow it’ll all be one hundred and eighty degrees different, on that you can rely.
Which is odd, since the past has already happened; it’s done, complete, finished, signed off, sealed, delivered; dead. But, then, dead things change a hell of a lot, as the smell testifies. I tend to think of the past as compost; drifts of dead yesterdays rotting down into a fine mulch, in which all sorts of weeds germinate, sprout and flourish. Of course, the past changes, it can’t not change, and what was true yesterday—
See above, passim. Change and decay in all around I see; everything changes, except for me.”
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
Which is odd, since the past has already happened; it’s done, complete, finished, signed off, sealed, delivered; dead. But, then, dead things change a hell of a lot, as the smell testifies. I tend to think of the past as compost; drifts of dead yesterdays rotting down into a fine mulch, in which all sorts of weeds germinate, sprout and flourish. Of course, the past changes, it can’t not change, and what was true yesterday—
See above, passim. Change and decay in all around I see; everything changes, except for me.”
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
“Of the people, by the people, for the people. I can’t remember offhand where that quote comes from; it was something to do with some bunch of wild-eyed idealists overthrowing the tyrant so they could become tyrants themselves. No good will have come of it, you can be sure. The people; God help us.”
― Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
― Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
“Ah, the people. My countrymen, my fellow citizens, my brothers. Mind you, some of them are all right, when you get to know them. But a lot of them aren’t; and here’s a funny thing, because when you mix them together, the ones that are all right and the ones that aren’t, as often as not the resulting blend is far worse than the sum of its parts. Greedier, more cowardly, more stupid.”
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
― How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
Behnaz’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Behnaz’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Behnaz
Lists liked by Behnaz
