More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
He’d always found it odd that so many died when they were old, as logic said that was the point in their lives when they’d had the most practice not dying.
“Proper loafing requires company. One man lying about is being idle; two men lying about is a lunch break.”
“Greet every morning with a smile. That way it won’t know what you’re planning to do to it?”
“Until you know it ain’t true, treat every woman like she has an older brother what is stronger than you are?”
“I ain’t drunk,” Wayne said, sniffling. “I’m investigatin’ alternative states of sobriety.
You had to adapt. Move. Change. That was good, but it could also threaten identity, connection, and sense of purpose. The governor’s guards studied the crowd with hostility, muttering about miscreants, as if seeing the crowd as barely contained malefactors who were looking for any excuse to riot and loot. To the contrary, these people wanted something stable, something that would let them sustain their communities or forge new ones. Rioting was rarely caused by greed, but frequently by frustration and hopelessness.
“Only expectation has value as currency, Waxillium,” Uncle Edwarn said. “This coin is worth more than the others because people think it is. They expect it to be. The most important things in the world are worth only what people will pay for them. If you can raise someone’s expectation . . . if you can make them need something . . . that is the source of wealth. Owning things of value is secondary to creating things of value where none once existed.”
“Our accents are clothing for our thoughts, my dear,” Wayne said. “Without them, everything we say would be stripped bare, and we might as well be screaming at one another.
The law is not something holy, son. It’s just a reflection of the ideals of those lucky enough to be in charge.”
No, freedom was not lack of responsibilities—it was being able to do what was right, without having to worry if it was also wrong.
