Mark Shurville

“War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“A life lived entirely at the whim of another is no life at all.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time

“(Nothing, the General muttered, is ever so expensive as what is offered for free.)”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“But I was also one of those unfortunate cases who could not help but wonder whether my need for American charity was due to my having first been the recipient of American aid.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer