The Veiled Throne Quotes

“You can't force anyone to live a story that doesn't feel true to them.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“The stories we love the most aren't stories about who we are, but who we could become.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Everyone is a storyteller,” he said. “That’s how we make sense of this life we live. Misfortune and affliction test us with one blow after another, most of which we don’t deserve. We have to tell ourselves a story about why to make all the random manipulations of fate and fortune bearable.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“So much of learning, decided Théra, consisted of forgetting how much you already knew.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“A lie became the truth when enough people had reasons to pretend it was true.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“ ‘Sometimes a paving stone is essential on the path to mine pure jade.’ Even an impractical idea may spark a better plan down the road.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“History is always a story retold through the present”
― Liu Ken, The Veiled Throne

“That there is a difference between the collective and the individual, and yet they’re bound up in ways that cannot be easily disentangled, is one of the hardest problems in life,”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“I think the most likely answer is that the gods were constructed in the image of the humans themselves, and not real at all.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“She had not known that she was cold until she was no longer cold. Change was what made knowledge possible.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“The freedom for each individual to choose their own tale moved the gods as much as the mortals.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Eyewitness accounts have always been subject to doubt, for it is in our nature to want stories but also to be disappointed by how they fall short of the irreducible qualia of lived reality.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Was there no way to harness the talents of all who loved the pursuit of knowledge without regard to birth, station, status, and erudition in the Ano Classics?”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“One should always be ready to stick knives between one’s ribs if that would help a friend,”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Love has no place for lies.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Was this how Princess Kikomi felt on the eve of Kindo Marana’s invasion of Arulugi? Was this how King Jizu felt as Tanno Namen’s army surrounded Na Thion? I am a symbol of hope but I have no hope myself. I am helpless to help.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“It may be that I am more scared to tell you than you are to tell me. But I see you the way you wish to be seen, and I hope you see me the way I wish to be seen.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“There’s always a tendency for those who didn’t personally experience suffering to romanticize aspects of the past that seem better than the present,”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Can we see each other the way we want to be seen? Can we recognize our souls in each other’s vision?”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“We’re never the villains in our own stories.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Captain, do you think they’ll remember us in the future like they remember the Hegemon?” “Probably not. Most soldiers who die are quickly forgotten. But we don’t fight to leave a name; we fight because it’s the right thing to do.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Just make whatever is on the menu’?” Mozo smashed another plate. “Oh I’m feeling faint. To think that I, a descendant of Suda Mu, am being told to throw things together in the kitchen like some army camp gruel stirrer! I… I think I cannot breathe. Doctor! I need a doctor! Maybe two or three!”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“We all have to do as our nature dictates. But it can take a lifetime to discover what that nature is.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Some wonders were more magnificent when enhanced with knowledge.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“Grave robbing was a dangerous profession that required great skill in practical geography and mechanical engineering. Underground passages of the tombs of great lords and ladies were filled with traps and dangers, and constructed like mazes to confuse intruders. The Mausoleum of Emperor Mapidéré, a project that consumed the lives of countless corvée laborers, was only an extreme version of this.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“To memorize orders, just connect the order in your mind with some striking aspect of the customer’s physical appearance. For example, if the man is bald and orders stew, picture him as a smooth reef poking out of the sea. But if he orders the platter of hors d’oeuvres, picture him as a rock in the woods sticking out of a carpet of moss. If the woman is ugly and orders the stew, imagine her as a seacow. But if the woman is ugly and orders the platter, imagine her as a cow mooing. For instance, the table you just came from could be memorized as: Seacow, seahorse, moo-moo, bare reef; Moss, boss, hot sauce, a hunk of beef. ‘See how easy that was?’ ”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“It was simply too arrogant to presume that the gods would bother with cursing or blessing mere commoners. If the gods cared about people at all, they only cared about the grand lords and ladies.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“- Sometimes I think the greatest pleasure of being a god is to learn something new from a favorite mortal.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“War is love corrupted?” Dandelion nodded. “That’s how I see it. War comes from hatred, but hatred is always based on a selfish love, a love that seeks to confine rather than to expand—love of home can turn into hatred of strangers; love of country can turn into arrogance toward other states; love of fellow travelers can turn into a desire to suppress anyone with a different opinion.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne

“In war, we become more like our enemies, whether we want to or not.”
― Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne