More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Know that the purpose of families, in the eyes of the Morninglord at least, is to make each generation a little better than the one before: stronger, perhaps, or wiser; richer, or more capable. Some folk manage one of these aims; the best and the most fortunate manage more than one. That is the task of parents. The task of a ruler is to make, or keep, a realm that allows most of its subjects to see better in their striving, down the generations, than a single improvement.
“A king’s first duty is to his subjects. Their lives are in his hands, and he must always look to their brightest, surest future in what he does. All depend on him—and all are lost if he neglects his duties, or governs by whim or willful heart. Obedience is his due, aye, but he must earn loyalty. Some kings never learn this. And what are princes but young willful lads learning to be kings?”
Only fools obey the nearest priest.”
“Folk always have to believe there’s something better, somewhere, than what they have right now—and that they just might get it. And they like to belong, to be part of a group, and feel superior to outlanders. It’s why folk join clubs, and companies, and fellowships.”
“Like orcs, humans know best how to do four things: breed too rapidly; covet everything around them; destroy anything and everything that stands in the way of any of their desires; and dominate what they can’t or won’t bother to destroy.”
few folk can truly learn by having every idle thought answered in an instant. They don’t bother to think about or remember anything, but merely come to rely on the one answering them for all wisdom and direction.”
Bitterness lends the weak-witted wings … always try to make a stop to eat into a time to think, and you’ll think more in a season than most think in all their days.”
In the name of a kingdom many fell things are done. In the name of a love fairer things are won.
