Shef

“He felt vaguely troubled when he looked towards the centre of the Green, where the block usually stood. But you become accustomed to the nearness of death by a whole series of simple thoughts that add up in the end to no more than a weary melancholy. It occurred to Mortimer that the sly raven would live on after him, and would tease other prisoners; the rats, too, would go on living, those big wet rats that emerged at night from the muddy banks of the Thames to run about the stones of the fortress; and
even the flea that was irritating him under his shirt would jump onto his executioner the day of his death and go on living. Every life that is wiped from the world leaves the other lives intact. There is nothing so ordinary as death.”
― Maurice Druon, The Lily and The Lion

“Power resides where men believe it resides. No more, no less... A shadow on the wall.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“Every living man is alone, Louis,’ he said gravely. ‘Each one of us in his loneliness undergoes the moment of recognition of sin, and it is mere vanity to believe that there are not moments like this in life. Even the body of the wife with whom we sleep remains a stranger to us; even the children we have conceived are strangers… There is no help but in compassion and in the knowledge that others suffer as we do.”
― Maurice Druon, The Strangled Queen