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

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.

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

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

If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea.

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

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.