Pyramids (Discworld, #7)

by Terry Pratchett

What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: “Why is it so dark in here?”

while assassination was probably worse than debate it was certainly better than war, which some people tended to think of as the same thing only louder.

There were distinct advantages to being the only child of parents too preoccupied with their own affairs to worry much about him, or indeed register his existence for days at a time.