Philip Shade

“Now what?' asked Mr Neville, taking her arm.
'Oh, nothing,' said Edith. 'I was simply thinking how little vice there is around these days. One is led to believe one can pick and choose, but in fact, there seems no choice at all.'
'Stroll round the deck with me,' said Mr Neville. 'You are shivering. That cardigan is not warm enough; I do wish you would get rid of it. ... As to vice, there is plenty to be found if you know where to look.'
'I never seem to find it,' said Edith.
'That is because you do not give yourself over wholeheartedly to the pursuit. But, if you remember, we are going to change all that.'
'I really don't see how. If all it involves is giving away my cardigan, I feel I should tell you I have another one at home.”
― Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

“And yet instead we struggle against a tide of Idiots, who through arrogance, greed, folly or lassitude, stand in the way of betterment and the common good.”
― Ben Hopkins, Cathedral

“Demagoguery is powerfully reduced when it stops getting people elected, and that usually happens because of in-group policing. Similarly, when it isn't profitable for a media outlet to engage in demagoguery, it won't, and that happens when its target market declines to put up with it. Individual demagogues are best stopped by in-group condemnation, and particular strains of demagoguery are generally ended by public shaming.”
― Patricia Roberts-Miller, Demagoguery and Democracy

“Once I started telling the truth, it was hard to stop.”
― Martha Wells, Exit Strategy