The Will to Battle (Terra Ignota, #3)

by Ada Palmer

“‘Likewise it lies not within the just scope of such an Authority to use its force against any person who is not its subject, unless that person has violated one of its subjects. Further, when the subject of one Authority violates the subject of another, the Necessity of Peace demands that the Authority governing the victim not use its force against the violator without first laboring in good faith to reach a compromise of punishment and action acceptable to both Authorities. “‘It is therefore concluded that no such Authority may justly be the source of any Universal Law. “And yet, because it lies within the power of a human being to inflict such damage upon the human race as to compromise its future, and to inflict such damage upon Nature as to endanger all present and future life and to inflict such damage upon the Produce of Civilization as to undo the life’s labors of past and present generations, and to commit intolerable crimes which so outrage the common conscience of humankind that they cannot be suffered—