Jacob

“As we believed in those days, a hero slain in the service of a mighty lord or sacrificed in homage to a high god was assured of a life everlasting in the most resplendent of afterworlds, where he would be rewarded and regaled with bliss throughout eternity. And now Christianity tells us that we all may hope for an afterlife in a similarly splendid Heaven. But consider. Even the most heroic of heroes dying in the most honorable cause, even the most devout Christian martyr dying in the certainty of reaching Heaven, he will never again know the caress of this world's moonlight dappling his face as he walks beneath this world's rustling cypress trees. A trifling pleasure--so small, so simple, so ordinary--but never to be known again.”
― Gary Jennings, Aztec

“First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.”
― James Clavell, Shōgun

“Life is politics, you do it or it does you”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 3001: The Final Odyssey