The lesson of history is that no one learns.

You always fashioned yourself as the Empire's harshest Fist, didn't you, Korbolo Dom? As if cruelty's a virtue.

I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast.

One day, perhaps, you will see for yourself that regrets are as nothing. The value lies in how they are answered.

Any reasonable ruler would have the expectation and the demand the other way round.

None could guess my confusion, my host of deluded illusions and elusive delusions! A mantle of marble hiding a crumbling core of sandstone. See how they stare at me, wondering, all wondering, at my secret wellspring of wisdom...' Let's kill him,' Crokus muttered, 'if only to put him out of our misery.

If all we seek is an escape, what does that say about the world we live in? That village, that city, that life? We are desperate with our dreams. What - oh, what - does that say?