An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2)

by James Islington

“But all of us who live long enough face that problem, Tal’kamar. Sometimes it’s what’s right against what lets us win. Sometimes it’s what’s right against what lets us survive. But it is always a choice.”

“The lesser of two evils, and the greater good. The most dangerous phrases in the world.”

“I should drop back a little as you walk, though, Sire. Not so far as to let you out of sight, but … it’s wise for me to avoid routine. Predictability is as good as an invitation to assassins.”

We love a good wingman

Isiliar gave him a dry look. “Then we’re back to the way we usually do things?” “Right.” Meldier gave an exaggeratedly slow nod. “Punch everyone that’s not us until they stop moving.”

but his father had ultimately changed his views once he’d learned about Wirr. Wirr just hoped that meant that his mother could, too.

Oh sweet summer child

“She’s my best friend.” He said the words quietly, almost surprised to hear them coming out of his mouth. “She’s my best friend, and I’m in love with her. That’s what she has, Ishelle.”

The day on which you decide not to question what you believe, is the day that you start making excuses for why you believe it.”

“So you want to kill him because it’s expedient,” Davian responded bluntly. Ishelle flushed. “It would be safest.” “So would killing everyone who opposed us. Everyone who stood in our way. Or Controlling them,” observed Davian. “Why don’t we just do that?” He almost laughed at the nervous shuffle from Erran in the corner, but the situation was too tense to show any mirth.

“I don’t care.” Davian let heat into his voice now. “We have to be better than this. Don’t you see? The way that the Gifted have been treating us, the way everyone fears us, is justified if we take this path.” “You can’t speak to us like that,” said Erran angrily. “Can’t I?” Davian turned on the other young man. “You think you’re above hearing hard truths about yourselves? Or don’t you care about your friend? Don’t you care that she’s doing this?”

She was just like the rest of them—willfully ignorant, passionately believing in something because she surrounded herself with people who also passionately believed in the same thing. He knew the type, now—those who found it easier to listen to people who reinforced what they already thought, rather than actually considering the opinions of those who didn’t.

The danger of evil, the purpose of evil, is that it causes those who would oppose it to become evil also.”

“The lesser of two evils, or the greater good. Get a good man to utter either of those phrases, and there is no one more eager to begin perpetrating evil.”