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“I have traveled far, and I have observed that poor people usually have more wit and more virtue than rich ones."
He smiled at that. "You are kind. But our people have so much wit and virtue now that they may die.”
― The Sword of the Lictor
He smiled at that. "You are kind. But our people have so much wit and virtue now that they may die.”
― The Sword of the Lictor
“I, however, never suffered more than a sore throat and a running nose, forms of sickness that serve only to deceive healthy people into the belief that they know in what disease consists. Master Malrubius suffered real illness, which is to see death in shadows.”
― The Citadel of the Autarch
― The Citadel of the Autarch
“Every man fights backward—to kill others. Yet his victory comes not in the killing of others but in the killing of certain parts of himself."
To show that I understood him, I said, "You must have killed all the worst parts of your own being.”
― The Sword of the Lictor
To show that I understood him, I said, "You must have killed all the worst parts of your own being.”
― The Sword of the Lictor
“I drive away those who pay to see me by foretelling their futures, and I will foretell yours. You are young now, and strong. But before the world has wound itself ten times more about the sun you shall be less strong, and you shall never regain the strength that is yours now. If you breed sons, you will engender enemies against yourself. If--"
"Enough!" I said. "What you are telling me is only the fortune of all men.”
― The Claw of the Conciliator
"Enough!" I said. "What you are telling me is only the fortune of all men.”
― The Claw of the Conciliator
“So attached to [their lost city of Pajarocu] were and are they that they have refused to duplicate it here on any lesser scale, although duplicating it on its original scale is still far beyond their reach. What they have done instead is to duplicate its plan to perfection—without duplicating, or attempting to duplicate, its substance at all.
There are “streets” paved with grass and fern between “buildings” and “manteions” that are no more than clearings in the forest marked in ways that are, to our eyes, almost undetectable. When the adult citizens we sought to question were willing to talk to us, they talked of gateways, walls and statues that did not in fact exist— or at least, that did not exist here on Blue—and described them in as much detail as if they loomed before us, together with colossal images of Hierax, Tartaros, and the rest, called by outlandish sobriquets and the objects of strange, cruel veneration.
But when the streets are too badly fouled or the river rises, this phantom Pajarocu goes elsewhere, which I think an excellent idea. Our own Viron was built on the southern shore of Lake Limna; when the lake retreated, our people clung to the shiprock buildings that Pas had provided when they ought to have clung to the idea that he had provided instead, the idea of a city by the lake. Many (although certainly not all) of Viron’s troubles may ultimately have been due to this single mistaken choice.
Listen to me, Horn and Hide. Listen all you phantom readers. Buildings are temporary, ideas permanent.”
― On Blue's Waters
There are “streets” paved with grass and fern between “buildings” and “manteions” that are no more than clearings in the forest marked in ways that are, to our eyes, almost undetectable. When the adult citizens we sought to question were willing to talk to us, they talked of gateways, walls and statues that did not in fact exist— or at least, that did not exist here on Blue—and described them in as much detail as if they loomed before us, together with colossal images of Hierax, Tartaros, and the rest, called by outlandish sobriquets and the objects of strange, cruel veneration.
But when the streets are too badly fouled or the river rises, this phantom Pajarocu goes elsewhere, which I think an excellent idea. Our own Viron was built on the southern shore of Lake Limna; when the lake retreated, our people clung to the shiprock buildings that Pas had provided when they ought to have clung to the idea that he had provided instead, the idea of a city by the lake. Many (although certainly not all) of Viron’s troubles may ultimately have been due to this single mistaken choice.
Listen to me, Horn and Hide. Listen all you phantom readers. Buildings are temporary, ideas permanent.”
― On Blue's Waters
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