When one is the agent of order and civilisation in the universe, one doesn't stoop to negotiate. Especially with nonhumans.

If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one.

What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-being of citizens?

Unity, I thought, implies the possibility of disunity. Beginnings imply and require endings.

Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.

Falling didn't bother me. I could fall forever and not be hurt. It's stopping that's the problem.

Let every act be just, and proper, and beneficial.