“Here, just like in my own world, popularity was power; survival required the occasional sacrifice of a damaged limb—or a damaged cousin—and alliances were crucial.”

“The old world was destroyed because of its own greed and secretiveness. Those least evolved rose to the top, as happens here. Your leaders, as you call them, are all people with damaged senses of self-worth. The damaged goods run the civilization. That’s why it cannot last." "Abraham Lincoln was damaged goods?""The need to lead is a symptom.”

“Now you are in the true world, and a great deal more is required of you. Here you must befriend real wolves, and lure real birds down from the sky. Here you must endure real people around you, and we are not uniformly kind; we are damaged and impulsive, each in our own way. It is harder. It is not safe. But it is what you were born to.”

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

“One cannot shape the world without being reshaped in the process. Each gain of power requires its own sacrifice.”

“Violent death is like a monster. The closer you get to it, the more damage you sustain if you survive at all.”