What is "poker"? A card game where abler liars take money off less able liars.

For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.

These jokes the world plays, they're not funny at all.

Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.

Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbors share your conscience.

To enslave an individual troubles your consciences, Archivist, but to enslave a clone is no more troubling than owning the latest six-wheeler ford, ethically. Because you cannot discern our differences, you assume we have none. But make no mistake: even same-stem fabricants cultured in the same wombtank are as singular as snowflakes.

A mountain you're plannin' on climbin' ain't the same as the one you ain't. It ain't so pretty.