A Drop of Corruption Quotes

“It is good to place oneself before the vast expanse of this world," said Ana. "The ocean cannot tell the difference between a rich man and a poor one, nor one full of happiness, nor despair. To those waves, all are so terribly small.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“The second decade of the twenty-first century seems replete with examples as to why autocracies are, to put it mildly, very stupid. Our headlines are dominated by regimes with one nigh-all-powerful man at the top making any number of terrible choices, and then – to the bafflement of the entire globe – doubling down on them, thus inflicting massive suffering on his people. It seems the talents that make a man capable of navigating palace intrigue until he wins the throne generally don’t coexist with the talents required for – or even a passing interest in – good governance. P 459
Yet if the 2010’s awed us with the power of autocrats, the 2020’s seem hell-bent to refute it. More and more, it becomes impossible to deny that autocrats – like any ruler – are but men, yet men with no obligation to listen their people, and thus acknowledge reality. This, in turn, makes them fools: fools that are very difficult to dislodge from their thrones, true, but fools nonetheless. P 460”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the ludex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well… the Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where the powerful and the cruel prevail without check. And tell me - does that realm look capable of fighting off a leviathan?”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“You know, you are not a stupid person, Din.” “Thank you, ma’am,” I said, pleased. “Or, rather, not an unusually stupid person.” “Thank you, ma’am,” I said, far less pleased.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Because all the characters in this story—like all of humanity, apparently—have a little blank spot in their heads that says, “Kings. What a good idea.” The idea is powerful, and seductive, and should not be underestimated. To be a civilization of any worth, however, means acknowledging the idea—and then condemning it as laughably, madly stupid. May we come to live in such a worthier world, and soon.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“To serve is a tremendously humbling thing. How easy it is to mistake glory and fame for duty! But duty is thankless, invisible, Forgettable—but oh, so very necessary.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“We built this, I thought. We have built this unnatural thing, and it has built us in turn.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“I heard Ghrelin’s voice continue beside me, whispering, “So I wonder
now. I wonder—what does that make us?”
“I…I beg pardon, sir?” I asked.
I turned and saw him smiling sadly at me through the glass of his helm.
“What does it mean,” he said, “when the line that once connected us to the
inscrutable and ineffable instead coils about, forms a great loop—and then
comes back to us?”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Oh, don’t bother with discretion now!” she said. “You’ve all the prudence of an inebriated cow! I’m half surprised people don’t gossip that you are a whore for hire, and I your pimp! It’d all be very amusing, if the reason for your consternation weren’t so obvious!”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“though the Legion defends our Empire, it falls to us to keep an Empire worth defending.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Just keep an eye out for the fellow with testicles large enough to cause back deformities, and we shall have our culprit!”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“People don't often get murdered in banks. They're usually rather difficult to escape from.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“...For you've become quite handy disguising yourself, haven't you? After all, what is a disguise but signals, and patterns, and gestures?...”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Some rules can be obeyed, others less so”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“And thus the emperor said to his advisers, ‘We have seen many empires fall, for they did not extend past the breath of their emperors. They decayed, and grew unjust. If I wish this new empire to last, I should not declare to my people that I am the Empire. Rather, I should say to them, You are the Empire. And with that blessing, they shall make a realm for the ages.’ ”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“That is the most precise vomit I have ever seen.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Regardless, the second decade of the twenty-first century seems replete with examples as to why autocracies are, to put it mildly, very stupid. Our headlines are dominated by regimes with one nigh-all-powerful man at the top making any number of terrible choices, and then—to the bafflement of the entire globe—doubling down on them, thus inflicting massive suffering on his people. It seems the talents that make a man capable of navigating palace intrigue until he wins the throne generally don’t coexist with the talents required for—or even a passing interest in—good governance.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“How easy it is to mistake glory and fame for duty! But duty is thankless, invisible, forgettable—but oh, so very necessary.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“for if we are not instruments in service to one another, then we are nothing at all.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“It seems the talents that make a man capable of navigating palace intrigue until he wins the throne generally don’t coexist with the talents required for—or even a passing interest in—good governance.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Goddamn autocrats. They really are hardly better than shit-stained children.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“To others, the dance might have seemed artful, yet to me, it was routine. I had memorized this method over the past year as I'd moved from place to place: much like picking a lock, some combination of these gestures and exchanges worked to win the right attentions. Or perhaps that was not quite it: perhaps I was more like a man dabbing bloods and scents upon his flesh as he stood before a darkened wood, waiting for some predator within to pounce on him and spirit him away.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“she snapped, “is dead as a fucking boiled scallop?”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“But a prideful creature can talk themself into believing that every deed they do is legitimate. Thus, they both giddily and greedily spin their own doom.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“It is good to place oneself before the vast expanse of this world,” said Ana. “The ocean cannot tell the difference between a rich man and a poor one, nor one full of happiness, or despair. To those waves, all are so terribly small.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“truncated”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Another prolific yet incredibly accurate spit.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“Why was he escorted by guards?" I asked.
"Because he was here to talk about taxes," she said. "And everybody hates the tax man-especially here in Yarrow. Which is no safe place.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“I gazed at the curious, coiling stone sculptures as we passed through the swamp, feeling as if we were not in the wild but some dripping graveyard, piled with fallen monuments. Even the moss laden trees had the look of grieving widows wandering the tombs in lace gowns.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption

“What does it mean,” he said, “when the line that once connected us to the inscrutable and ineffable instead coils about, forms a great loop—and then comes back to us?”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption