The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)

by Steven Erikson

could simple convenience prove so perniciously evil? The action of doing things, laborious things, repetitive things, such actions invited ritual, and with ritual came meaning that expanded beyond the accomplishment of the deed itself. From such ritual self-identity emerged, and with it self-worth. Even so, to make life easier must possess some inherent value, mustn’t it?

‘The first casualty among the defeated is recalling their own list of crimes,

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