# Quote — Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters

> We are contrary creatures, us humans, but that isn't something we need be afraid of, or even much troubled by. And if you make a list of those people who worship consistency, you'll find they're one and all tyrants or would-be tyrants. Ruling over thousands, or over a husband or a wife, or some cowering child. Never fear contradiction, Cutter, it is the very heart of diversity.

- Author: [Steven Erikson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson.md)
- Book: [The Bonehunters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Erikson#The_Bonehunters_(2006)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/we-are-contrary

## More from this book

> A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilisation. Thus a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/a-civilization-at-war.md)

> Mappo Trell, I believe motivations prove, ultimately, irrelevant. Upon either side of the battlefield the face grins with blunt stupidity, even as smoke fills the sky from horizon to horizon, even as crops whither and die, even as sweet land turns to salt. Inequity ends, Trell, when no-one and no thing is left standing.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/mappo-trell-i-believe.md)

> Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/compassion-existed-when.md)