“Grown men do not need leaders.”
“Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.”
“Leaders need to see clearly in darkness, Peregrine. You already do that.”
“Boys like it when you talk to them as if they were grown men—at least he always did when he was a kid—because they pretend that’s what they are anyhow, grown-up men, and they do it for their entire lives.”
“Do grown men always have to play games? Does everything have to be an excuse for another kind of game? Do any men grow up or do they only come of age?”
“A leader should be able to see and know what to do! His acumen should give the men a reason to rule their season.”