Why is it that you and I suppose that if we want something, it must come to pass? Charles’s lips quirked up into a smile so colored by grief that it felt almost as if other people had been brought by...
War was so simple, wasn't it? Much simpler than justice.
He, who the sword of heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go; More nor less to others paying Than by self offenses weighing. Shame to hi...
Are these soldiers really our enemy, or only the worst reflection of our own selves?... We made them. We have to unmake them, not just defeat or kill them.
There are no chances. He favored her again with that unreadable look. You succeed or you fail. Battles are not won by men who refuse to take risks. It
In truth what had drawn my eye was the rear view of a young man stripped to the waist and plying an adze along a beam. I could not help but admire his muscled back.
You’re not afraid to take risks. Neither are you, Diana. Don’t ever lose that quality. Once a person stops pushing and growing, she is as dead in the spirit as if she were dead in the flesh.
To withhold trust until there is no doubt is not trust.
If we prosper only through the suffering or death of another, then that is not prosperity.
I lifted my chin. All right then. You are always very precise when it comes to magic. So I've observed. And really, really don't like to get things wrong. So when you saw there were two young women, t...
First and foremost, any great empire thrives on movement: stable lines of supply, of trade, of information. This movement must be unobstructed for officials on imperial business, and monitored and res...
But if the gods only cursed us, then we would hate them. And if they only blessed us, then—well, then we’d care nothing for their laws because we’d respect nothing but our own pleasure.
All people are bound by ties and obligations, and the most binding ties of all are those between kin.
As he takes his place I know that just as the crowd sees him and his sister standing on either side of their cousin, reminding everyone they are royal cousins, the crowd also sees me within arm’s reac...
And once you saw the world from three, or five, different roads, the view was never the same. The map changed and altered, and its details became more accurate. The landmarks receded or grew, dependin...
A man gets used to riding on at the break of day. Comes to think that movement and noise is where life is, when after all there's life in stillness and quiet too.
Where do I start? Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.
We’ll smell of fish forever, I said. That would be nice.
We are none of us one thing alone and unchanging. We are not static, or at rest. Just as a city or a prince’s court or a lineage is many people in one, so is a person many people within one, always un...
There’s an old saying: ‘be careful what you wish for; you might get it.’ Oh, gods. A quaver shook Ilya’s voice. The bargains we make with the gods never fall out as we think they will.