Nick de Vera

“We have a special name, here, for a certain kind of failure to defer to the greater good—for putting a personal sense of doing right above any objective measure of the outcome. It’s called ‘moral vanity’.”
― Greg Egan, The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record; while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks of the river.”
― Will And Ariel Durant

“This is the truth. You will know because it hurts.”
― Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant

“As the crowd stomps the floor for a curtain call, we sneak through the back door and make off like superheroes.”
― Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius