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“It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma.”

“‘We’re toying now with the idea of accepting your offer, Lady Jessica, but Duncan Idaho should be sent back to his loving wife.’
Pain is a function of nerves, Idaho reminded himself. Pain comes as light comes to the eyes. Effort comes from the muscles, not from nerves.”

“Not Alia,” he said. “We do The Preacher’s bidding. He wants you to teach Farad’n as once you taught . . . Paul.”
Jessica remained in frozen silence, remembering Leto’s words, that she would find an interesting student. Presently she said: “This Preacher—is he my son?”
Idaho’s voice seemed to come from a great distance: “I wish I knew.”

Still not sure how I feel about this

“And he thought: This is the correct path; we do the right thing. But he knew how dangerous it was to be right in this universe.”

“I will make a Red die because he killed Golds. He dug the earth like me. He has a soul like mine. In death, it will go to the vale, but in life he was stupid and selfish with his grief. He should have been better than this. Reds are better than him, aren’t we?”

“They stole her. But she let them. She left me. She left me tears and pain and longing. She left me to give me anger, and I cannot help but hate her for a moment even though beyond that moment there is only love.”

“‘Look into yourself, Darrow, and you’ll realize that you are a good man who will have to do bad things.’
My hands are unscarred and feel strange whe I clench them till the knuckles turn that familiar shade of white.
‘See. That’s what I don’t get. If I am a good man, then why do I want to do bad things?’”

“He and Evey sit with me sometimes, and though I think Mickey a wretched sort of creature, I feel as though he understands the music. Its beauty. Its importance. And afterward, he says nothing. I like him then, too. At peace.”

“‘Personally, I do not want to make you a man. Men are so very frail. Men break. Men die. No, I’ve always wished to make a god.’”

“‘Do you know why we call ourselves Sons of Ares, Darrow? To the Romans, Mars was the god of war—a god of military glory, defense of the heart and home. Honorable and all. But Mars is a fraud. He is a romanticized version of the Greek god Ares … Ares was a bastard, an evil patron of rage, violence, bloodlust, and massacre,’ he says.”

“‘Eo is… dead, yes?’
‘Yes. She is. We couldn’t save her, Darrow.’
‘Why not?’ I ask.
‘We just couldn’t.’
‘Why not?’ I repeat. I glare up at him, glare at his followers and hiss the words one by one. ‘You saved me. You could have saved her. She is the one you would have wanted. The bloodydamn martyr. She cared about all this. Or does Ares only need Sons, not Daughters?’”

“On Mars there is not much gravity.”

“‘I live for you,’ I say sadly.
She kisses my cheek. ‘Then you must live for more.’
There’s a long, terrible silence that stretches between us. She does not understand how her words wrench my heart, how she can twist me so easily. Because she does not love me like I love her. Her mind is too high. Mine too low. Am I not enough for her?”

“Without me, she would not eat. Without her, I would not live.”

“On Mars there is not much gravity.”

“Alecto was angry, and raised her up and kissed her. The child did not cry out, though blood fell from her lips and tongue, and she was wounded sore. For Alecto knew not how to kiss, except such as it involved the mouth and teeth.
And Alecto said to her, ‘why are you not appeased? That is how meat loves meat.’”

“And Alecto said, ‘Pyrrha, he laid me down as an appeasement to them. He fed you to them as an appeasement to them. But he has never appeased me, and now all he has done was teach me how to die.’”

“John had said, ‘it’s so beautiful. Come and look.’
She had said, ‘there are almost no beautiful things left. Where is Anastasia? Let me talk to Anastasia.’”

“‘Don’t worry, kiddie,’ she said tiredly. ‘I’ll keep loving you. My problem is I don’t know how to stop. And, you know, who you are—were—you’re capable of more than you think right now. I liked you. He liked you—Gideon liked you. My necromancer and I always liked you. And hey, what’s ‘like’ except a love that hasn’t been invited indoors?’”

“‘Camilla and Palamedes were loved by Nona,’ said Paul. ‘Pyrrha was loved by Nona. It’s finished; it’s done. You can’t take loved away. We loved you, too. Palamedes and Camilla loved you.’”

“But I am the Reverend Daughter. I am the Reverend Mother, the Reverend Father. I must find God, or some aspect of God, and understand it for myself; even if she lies, right now, in the Tomb.”

“It’s the human instinct—to take. When you burn your thumb you stick it in your mouth, right? And there was still too much of me that was just a human being.”

“Next to Nona, Pyrrha gave an ineloquent shrug. ‘Maybe I just like talking to other people who knew her.’
‘And should they wax so nostalgic with you, her murderer?’
Pyrrha was unmoved. ‘I like to think I knew her as well as anyone else, commander. As well as anyone could know her.’”

“Forgive me. Forgive me so I can know what it feels like.”

“‘Ah, children; they are very forgiving,’ said the commander, proving to Nona she had never been around children.”

“They hadn’t even seemed to notice. It was in Kiriona’s every movement: the bright, swift flexions of her arms, and the way she swung her legs, big and brash, and the weirdly easy, light grace with which she moved her dead body. Nona had never seen anybody so sad in her whole short life. It made her nearly afraid to die.”

“Camilla held out her hand. Pash shook her head; ‘I’ll touch you at the end of the world, but not before.’
‘Might be your last chance,’ said Cam.
Pash barked a laugh. ‘In my final minutes, Hect, I won’t regret not shaking your hand.’”

“In point of fact that’s not actually Crown’s boyfriend, Nona, it’s her sister, but I don’t think anyone could blame you for getting confused.”
Oh Palamedes I love you😭😭

“He said, ‘which just goes to show that only getting to NCEA level two isn’t going to stop you making waves in life, right? You can still eat steak, talk to wizards, and take down the government.’”