The Octagonal Raven Quotes

“I’ve read all the briefing materials they sent. Do you have any insights beyond that?” “I’ve heard that the first physical training isn’t quite impossible, and that the integrative abilities the FS requires make advanced study oral exams seem extraordinarily simple-minded.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Once more the evil Daryn Alwyn strikes.” “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?” “These people are trying to install a tyranny—an even greater tyranny. They’ve used the current system to strangle any opposition. They’re responsible for the deaths of half my family, and no one can or will do anything, and I’m a villain for trying to expose them.” I laughed, bitterly.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“The way things were going, it appeared that the only question was whether the assassins or the advocates got to me first. This was definitely a time when I wished I were the one with access to exploding monoclones or unfindable thugs—except I wouldn’t have even known how to use them.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“When we suggest they hid it, they say that we can’t say that. Not unless we can find the evidence they hid. And they want it so that the Civil Authorities can’t even look for evidence without the evidence.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“I want the whole world to know that the PST types are effectively trying to shut down questioning of their actions and motives. If someone has the resources to suppress or avoid evidence, and you can’t even question their motives without the evidence you can’t get because it’s been suppressed, then, in effect, those who have the resources to suppress the evidence are outside the law, and can do anything they want so long as they can find a way to keep evidence from being found or produced.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“The real problem is the same one that’s always been there. Some people have more ability than others, and people with greater ability like to use and often abuse their abilities, and too many of those with less ability refuse to accept their limitations. Nothing we do will change that.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“people have been trying to kill me, and my family, for the last six months, mostly because, arrogant as everyone claims we are, we’ve tried to oppose the growth of a hidden tyranny—” “A greater hidden tyranny.” She straightened up and patted my shoulder. “Control of the less able by the more able is still a tyranny.” “I’d agree, but things didn’t exactly work out well for anyone when the less able were controlling society.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“The locales varied, but the approach was the same—set up the ground rules so that the opposition’s only real options appeared unreasonable, illegal, or futile. For years, if not generations, it had worked well. But there were signs that the tactic was getting old, and creating more and more frustration—leading to a social explosion?”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“People are going to get hurt.” “But they’ll stay free.” “They don’t always want freedom.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Successful revolutions aren’t led by the masses.” Nyhal snorted. “They’re led by the discontented elite who exploit the discontents of others.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“I don’t like things being banned, because then they go underground and no one has any control. I am suggesting that if this misuse of monoclones continues, life will get a lot harder for both BGP and you, and probably more than a few others. This will lead to more restrictions and more rules and won’t solve any problems. Or it won’t, and more people will get the idea that the only solution to their problems is to ignore the system and take the law into their own hands. Either way, it’s not good.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Why now?” I understood. “Because…well…you always look for the right moment, and the right words, and life sometimes doesn’t provide either.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Mob violence wasn’t strength, just unfocused destruction, but that didn’t matter to angry and frustrated people,”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Can I change what is and has been? Can anyone? Will anyone notice? Or listen. Or understand? Or is any effort to do so mere vanity? Does it matter, given the alternatives?”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Now, one could argue logically that we’re unsuccessful products of evolution, since successful evolution results in the diversity of a species, not in its homogenization, but the social evolutionists claim that successful evolution is apparent domination of the planet and its resources.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“I was just thinking that, in the end, separatism is a dead end where an awful lot of people die.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“The results of separatism, if looked at historically, almost always followed the same pattern. The separatists left or revolted, after claiming persecution at the hands of the majority culture. If they succeeded in establishing their own culture, they invariably ended up persecuting those who didn’t conform to their standards, thereby creating either strict repression and eventually another revolution or another separatist culture somewhere else to repeat the pattern. And if the separatists didn’t succeed in their revolt, the majority crushed them to hold together the existing society. Either way, at every step, people died.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Every piece of the globe has been conquered at least a handful of times.” “And the conquerors promptly forgot that they stole it from someone else so that they could claim some sort of moral right to the land when someone else tried to take it away from them,” I suggested.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Human technology may have changed, but not human nature, or not that much. Now…we have people protesting once more that the system isn’t fair.” He snorted. “Of course it’s not. No system is fair. It’s only a question of being as fair as possible, given the physical limits of the world and the various limits of the population.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Ravens together merited the term “unkindness of ravens.” While I liked the intelligence of ravens, most cultures in human history had identified with eagles. Because of the eagle’s raw power? Because intelligence unchecked is always suspect? Or because humans were still hardwired from a million years of hardscrabble existence to respect strength?”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“They belonged to the long and honorable human tradition that had spawned the Luddites, the flat-earthers, various bible-thumping faithies, the scientographers, and the back-earthies, not to mention all the other forms of the true believers that had parasitized human society over the millennia.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven

“Life is never perfect. Even a good society is not perfect, and perfection is the enemy of all that is good. Those who seek perfection will destroy an imperfect good.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Octagonal Raven