“Are you familiar with Wallader’s theory that every society is fundamentally organized around one or another… — Matt Hughes
“Are you familiar with Wallader’s theory that every society is fundamentally organized around one or another of the cardinal sins?”
“I believe not,” I said.
“He argues that the true seed of every culture, whatever the ideals to which it gives lip service, always turns out to be one of the seven mortal iniquities identified by the ancients: pride, greed, and anger are the most common; lust, gluttony, and envy less so; those based on sloth usually do not last.”
p. 70Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
When all the good ideas have been expended, I quoted to myself, one might as well try a bad one.
p. 222
“Magic,” said my integrator, “has rules. At the heart of the willful, associative universe, we find a modicum of rationalism, just as we find uncertainty at the core of the rational cosmos.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And there seems no other explanation for it than sheer perversity on the part of whatever entity is responsible for the whole untidy business.”
I thought about it a moment more then said, “Perversity, or just a very idiosyncratic sense of humor.”
p. 176
When we have done more traveling together, you will come to see that occasionally we must be other than forthright with local authorities. Many of them lack imagination and react poorly to creativity and unexpected innovation.
p. 154
