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

by James Islington

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

“Refusing to believe evidence is not the same thing as lacking it.”

“If a builder and an architect sit at the same table, does one role become more like the other? Or do they work better together because of it?” He waved Caeden into the seat next to him. “We are all servants, Tal’kamar—just with different roles. They serve me so that I may serve the people. We have different jobs, but we are equals nonetheless.”

Religion is the following of rules and rituals in the hope that they will somehow garner the favor of a higher power.

Slowly, inch by inch, he started forward again. He didn’t know where he was going or what he was looking for, but it was all he had left.

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.”

“They cannot seriously believe that.” “Deep down, they probably don’t—but it’s less about the truth and more about fear, at the moment.”

“We can’t start mistaking what we can do for what we have the right to do.”

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 people with whom we are friends should never affect our morality; rather, our morality should affect with whom we are friends.’”

“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.”