“Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.”

“Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it right.”

“For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone.”

“I wondered how anyone could have been so sure about a concept so tenuous and impossible as always that they'd be willing to carve it into a tabletop.”

“Being doped is a pleasure you pay for. There was always opium there for the people -- in the end it tainted their whole faith. If the Church had not always stood so watchfully behind the ruling powers, there would not have been such attacks against everything it stood for -- although of course it may have been competing with them for the first place among the rulers, as in the Middle Ages. Whenever it was a question of keeping the serfs, and then the paid slaves down, the dope-dealers came unfailingly to the help of the oppressors.”

“Have a care, Sir Tucker, lest you find yourself in the stockades."He scoffs and looks at Mr. Erikson. "She can't do that, can she? She's not the ruler of this class. Brady is."..."You could strip him of his title," suggests Brady, apparently not minding at all that I have usurped his throne. "Make him a serf.""Yeah," says Christian. "Make him a serf. Being a serf blows."As a serf, poor Christian has already been killed several times in our class. Aside from dying of the Black Plague on the first day, he's starved to death, had his hands cut off for stealing a loaf of bread, and been run down by his master's horse just for kicks. He's like Christian the fifth now.”