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The perfect vacation for people who wanted to travel without all the unpleasantness of experiencing anything new. Gibson understood the appeal of southern Portugal.
Not thinking about the future didn’t stop the future from thinking about you.
A man could see a thousand naked women and still greet the next with the wonder and fascination of a blind virgin. But you saw one naked man, you’d seen them all.
scrum
infighting
quoted Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa: “Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace, but there’s no palace till it’s built.”
here.” “They’re scared of something,” Jenn said. “Discipline’s always the first thing to go.”
noncommittally
vitiligo,
“You didn’t buy their loyalty; you only rented it. They’ll be watching to see if you can still afford it.”
Disliking someone didn’t mean they were incompetent.
pen test this
Power is a strange thing. It is the only appetite that grows the more it is fed.
cordite
Everyone was an expert after the fact.
Men never made mistakes because they were men. They made mistakes because they were stupid, incompetent, lazy—individual character flaws. But when a woman screwed up, it was a referendum on her entire gender.
The unvarnished truth sometimes had a way of coming out like a lie.
pwning
People were temporary. They came. They went. To expect otherwise made you dependent on others. Dependency led to a weakness that bled you from a thousand invisible wounds.
The smile that could unlace her best intentions.
“That’s no reason to make an enemy. Treat people like animals, they will become an animal. How many times do I have to tell you and Luisa? Force is a tool that feels good in our hands but bad in our memory. Be careful how you wield it. Do you understand?” “Yes, Pai.”
When a species adapts to survive in its environment, that’s evolution. That’s all it is. We’re not evolving into something better, more enlightened. Or worse. We evolve to survive. Nothing more. And survival is amoral. It is not an enlightened state.”
‘Jackie Wilson Said.’
If there were a single rule of human nature that Gibson could depend on, it was that people would rather bluff than admit ignorance.
Not a word had been spoken, but there had been a conversation nonetheless. It reminded João of his crew. How the men could pass long nights working the nets without speaking more than a dozen words between them. Everything communicated through a glance or a gesture or a simple action. Such an understanding didn’t come without a price, João knew. It took years on the open ocean. Far out beyond the edge of the world. It was closer than anyone wanted to believe. That place where no help would come in time. When you were on your own with only your crew to watch your back for that wave that would
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