Translator Dlique was saying, very earnestly, “Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they're programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week.

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

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

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

To be Radchaai is to be civilised.

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

Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It's just easier to handle those with emotions.