“Even though there is so much to be unhappy about in this world, we should try to create something amazing and beautiful and interesting despite all of the problems.”

“He saw the delicate blades of grass which the bodies of his comrades had fertilized; he saw the little shoots on the shell-shocked trees. He saw the smoke-puffs of shrapnel being blown about by light breezes. He saw birds making love in the wire that a short while before had been ringing with flying metal. He heard the pleasant sounds of larks up there, near the zenith of the trajectories. He smiled a little. There was something profoundly saddening about it. It all seemed so fragile and so absurd.”

“We may seem the weakest and most insignificant of all the Realms, but our strength comes in other ways. We have what no other race has: imagination. Any one of us, even the lowliest, can create worlds within ourselves; we can people them with the most extraordinary creatures, the most amazing inventions, the most incredible things. We can live in those worlds ourselves, if we choose; and in our own worlds, we can be as we want to be. Imagination is as close as we will ever be to godhead, Poison, for in imagination, we can create wonders.”

“Who said anything about justice? There's no such thing. But injustice is as much a part of life as the weather.”

“Flesh, bodies, nerves, legs… things were getting all mixed up in his mind. It seemed to be filled with flesh, cloyed with the sweetish smell of flesh that is torn open and over which blood is pouring. It was his flesh, their flesh, lying about still alive, but dying, dying so slowly, dying so fast…”

“Silly…but the mere issuing of a command always inspires confidence. It doesn't matter whether it is a necessary command, or even a correct one…it inspires self-confidence even in the man who issues it.”

“Silly," Dax thought, "but the mere issuing of a command always inspires confidence. It doesn'tt matter whether it is a necessary command, or even a correct one.: Then , a little later, an afterthought came to him: "It inspires self-confidence even in the man who issues it.”