The Variant Saga Boxed Set (The Variant Saga, #1-4)

by J.N. Chaney

But Nature operates on change, on adaptability. If we cannot adapt, we cannot progress. And if we cannot progress, we will die. If we can accept this fundamental truth, we can move forward.

Real power isn’t dealt in bullets, darlings, but in words. Words that stir a man to stand when all the rest have fled…to fight unwinnable wars, all for the sake of a thought. Every leader who made a difference didn’t do it with a sword or a gun, but with a voice that might have moved a mountain. Think of all the revolutions, all the great religions whose followers once numbered in the billions, and understand me when I tell you: they started with a few delusional fools, conspiring in a room.”

“You might think I did all this out of the goodness of my little heart, but it wouldn’t be the whole truth. The reality is I needed public opinion on my side. I needed people to like me. It’s easy to get elected or appointed if you understand the way the ladder works, darlings, but staying in power is the tricky part. You need more than a title and a pretty face for that. But you can’t do it with fear or violence, because in the end you’ll only lose. You have to do it with love. Show them you’re a saint. Make them believe you care, and then prove you actually do. That’s how you win the long hand. That’s how you beat the other bastards down.”

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You will find there are two types of people in this world, Little Traveler: those who sit and wait, and those who go and see. The man in the golden chair will be fatter and safer, more ready to believe what he is told, but the one who leaves will find and know the truth, and he will come back changed. I would rather search the world for my own truth than be told what to believe by another.”

“There’s always new surprises,” Thistle used to tell him, back in the early days. “Every single day, there’s possibilities. That’s why we can’t let our guard down, kid. You never know what’s around the corner.”

A good deal of tyranny Goes by the name of protection. – Crystal Eastman

Innovation often requires more than a single perspective if it is to achieve its true goal. We build our future on the backs of yesterday’s giants. It is the only way humanity knows how to move forward.

Man is free at the instant he wants to be. – Voltaire To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. – Arthur Schopenhauer