“Ah, Fist, it’s the curse of history that those who should read them, never do.”

“Children are dying."Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.”

“By the Lady’s never-sucked teats!”“Elas Sil!”“Oh shut up! I’m a woman, I can curse about things like that. Wait, it’s not as dark up ahead. Come on, and hasn’t that baby of yours been asleep a long time? You sure it’s not dead?”“Wel, it peed on me halfway down that last corridor, and last I looked it was smiling.”“Huh. It ever amazes me women get talked into motherhood.”

“Desires should never be justified,' Tehol said, wagging a finger. 'All you end up doing is illuminating the hidden reasons by virtue of their obvious absence.”

“Shake your fist all you want but dead is dead.”

“She'd seen them them all before, those faces. She knew them all, knew the sound of their voices, sounds mired in human emotions, sounds clear and pure with thought, and sounds wavering in that chasm between the two. Is this, she wondered, my legacy? And one day I'll be just one more of those faces, frozen in death and wonder.”

“The lesson of history is that no one learns.”