Drew Beattie

“Poor Uther. He believed that virtues are handed down through a man's loins! What nonsense! A child is like a calf; if the thing is born crippled you knock it smartly on the skull and serve the cow again. That's why the Gods made it such a pleasure to engender children, because so many of the little brutes have to be replaced. There's not much pleasure in the process for women, of course, but someone has to suffer and
thank the Gods it's them and not us.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.”
― Thomas Carlyle