Pain, or even just discomfort, is like the warning sent by a frontier guard, sir. You are free to choose to… — Iain M. Banks

Truth, I have learned, differs for everybody. Just as no two people ever see a rainbow in exactly the same place—and yet both most certainly see it, while the person seemingly standing right underneath it does not see it at all—so truth is a question of where one stands, and the direction one is looking in at the time.

We only become beasts—we become worse than beasts—when we torment others.

“I had formed the impression the Protector valued your counsel.”

“It is most valued when it most closely accords with his own view.”