Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.

Fear is the penalty of consciousness forced to stare at itself.

This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here—the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos.

We are generalists. You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.

I cry for those not yet dead.

The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.