Felipe Held

“The authors rarely depicted themselves or their companions as the agents of an imperialist system. They were consumed with their own daily struggles and ambitions—with working the ship, with gaining promotions and securing money for their families, and, ultimately, with survival. But it is precisely such unthinking complicity that allows empires to endure. Indeed, these imperial structures require it: thousands and thousands of ordinary people, innocent or not, serving—and even sacrificing themselves for—a system many of them rarely question.”
― David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

“we hold our failures close, so as to learn from them. We take pride in them because failing means you tried. You can only ever succeed if you allow yourself to fail.”
― Ryan Cahill, Of War and Ruin

“The power of words is in the choosing of them, my son. Not just in the choosing of which words to speak, but in choosing when not to speak at all. The man who speaks rarely but wisely is heeded far more often than the man who can’t hold his tongue.”
― Ryan Cahill, Of War and Ruin

“It was ironic that the same people who had enacted nuclear war on the Homeworld, who presided over the refugee camps and rotted the ecosphere, had balked in the face of blood sport. Would they call us barbarians, those men of ancient days?”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Empire of Silence