“Everyone recognized she was without malice and therefore she provoked none.”

“It is because they are so strong that she hides her feelings.”

“The order should not have been given,' she said. 'It was not done for the city but for your private ends.'I shook my head. 'There is no difference.'You believe that?'A Prince must, or he is no Prince.”

“What I was suddenly aware of was the importance of their being whatever each of them was--cocky and contemptuous, or bothered and beaten--as long as it was something they'd come to in their own way: the importance of being human, in fact. The peace and harmony Uncle Ian and the others claimed to be handing out in fact was death, because without being yourself, an individual, you weren't really alive.”

“There are disappointments in all men's lives, even those who have achieved their ambition, and there are compensations.”

“Then I went to the windows and pulled them open. The rain had stopped and the night was very still, black except for the glow behind the western hills that marked the Burning Lands. A dog barked far off, once and no more.”

“Even if it is nonsense, it is often useful to know what kind of nonsense men believe.”