Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)

by Ann Leckie

“If that’s what you’re willing to do for someone you hate, what would you do for someone you loved?”

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.

I was all but dead, had been for twenty years, just a last, tiny fragment of myself that had managed to exist a bit longer than the rest, each action I took a very good candidate for the last thing I’d ever do.

“I didn’t get where I am by having reasonable goals,” said Anaander Mianaai.