A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one. He – or she – freely gives the gift of their will to their god. And in renouncing action, makes action possible.
We are all of us, every one, our own works; we present our souls to our Patrons at the ends of our lives as an artisan presents the works of his hands.
And that was just how it worked, wasn’t it? Happiness handed around and around, never stopping. It wasn’t something one could hoard tight like a miser. That would be like trying to hold one’s breath for later.
I seem to have accidentally got married, but it’s only temporary.
Miles, when he was contemplating this technology for my future grandchildren, wanted to start twelve at once and do them all in one efficient batch. Like growing his own platoon, I gather. I offered to take turns with Ekaterin holding his head under water till he had a better idea, but as it turned out, she didn’t need my help. Wonderful girl, my daughter-in-law. I still don’t know what he did to deserve her.
To a man of certain age... all young ladies start to look delightful. It’s the first symptom of senility.
What’s in the box? Not a severed head – again – I trust?” It seemed too small for that, fortunately. Cordelia’s gray eyes glinted. “Now, now, Oliver. Bring home one dismembered body part, once, mind you, once, and people get twitchy about checking your luggage ever after.
Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat.
Well, who wants to die in bed?” “You did, you always said. Of extreme old age, in bed, with somebody’s wife.” “Mine, by preference,” Cazaril.
Hold to virtue – if you can identify it – and trust that the duty set before you is the duty desired of you. And that the talents given to you are the talents you should place in the gods’ service. Believe that the gods ask for nothing back that they have not first lent to you. Not even your life.
It’s never too late while you’re breathing.
Yet loyalty must run two ways, or else become betrayal in the egg.
It indicates a deep confusion of thinking to mistake one’s own discomfort for a benefit to another.
How hard could husbanding be? Don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t bring hunting dogs to the table. Don’t be terrified of tooth-drawers. Don’t be stupid about money. Don’t go for a soldier. No hitting girls. He wasn’t drawn to violate any of these prohibitions. Assuming older sisters weren’t classified as girls. Maybe make that, No hitting girls first.
Are we not all called on to yield our children back to the world, in the end?
She considered the familiar conundrum inherent in complimenting a child for doing something well in the course of what ought not to have been done at all, and kept her peace.
He didn’t think he was edging into dementia. He suspected he was edging into sanity, the long way around. The hard way.
Let me help. Rhymes with I love you, right?
Truth is always War’s first victim, the old saying went.
A Caligula, or a Yuri Vorbarra, can rule a long time, while the best men hesitate to do what is necessary to stop him, and the worst ones take advantage.