Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota, #2)

by Ada Palmer

“There is no need now, Foster,” Dominic continued, “to pretend that thou wishest thy God to be a Clockmaker. He has answered thy secret prayer, and proved that He is not. That was thy true prayer, was it not?”

There are miracles, and a Divinity behind those miracles, Who has a Plan, but have you ever, reader, heard me claim that that Plan is benevolent?

I warned as I saw him part his lips to speak. “I don’t believe it because I’ve seen proof, or because I was actively convinced, it’s just that He acts so consistently like a God, and I’ve spent so long around people who believe He’s a God, Himself and others, that I absorbed it, the way if you spend too long with Mommadoll you start thinking of everyone as children. Jehovah will say something and I’ll think to myself, ‘Oh, He thinks that because He’s a God.’

Never create a personal enemy. Always keep layers of minions between yourself and someone you destroy, it’s safer that way.”

“Revenge heeds instinct, not evidence.

Faust crossed his arms. “Don’t give Madame all the credit. Some of us cultivated excellent perversions on our own.”

Caesar will never feel at ease relying on Jehovah, as no ruler can rest whose cities thrive upon a riverbank, which could, at any moment, flood.

I think all human beings, even I who have no right to ask more of the world, wish to see the future. I don’t mean the whole future; after a millennium history must progress beyond one’s ability to understand.