The Tyranny of Faith Quotes

“They just gleefully spouted mistruths that were so outrageous and stupid there was no way to properly engage with them.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Forgive me; I was taking my cue from you. I thought we had reached the point in the session where we simply spoke whatever nonsense entered our brains.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Death is the reward for hope.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Humankind is not so self-terminating that we would allow our greatest quality – that of our capacity for hope – to be fully extinguished. But I shall readily admit that there are times when we are reduced to fanning the embers.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Many have questioned my methods; none have questioned the results.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“History is neat. It is packaged, artificially broken up into epochs, and dissected remotely, both geographically and temporally, with the benefit of long hindsight. The reality of living through these turbulent times was much different. Matters are insidious. They build up over time, like small pieces of wood being chipped out of a supporting beam. Complexities and nuances are lost in the retelling of the story.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“The father of misfortune sires many children.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“About his feet was a large pool of fresh blood – and crushed to a fine paste between the shut gates, like a burst sausage, was a body. A single green eye, hanging from a smear of gore, looked out accusingly at us from the gap.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“I have always loved you”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“You will need a lot more than prayer to stop them.” “I have been making war on the Frontier for over a decade”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“There is not a problem on this earth that cannot be solved with bloodshed.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Binding nations into empires is like tying together a pack of hounds; first they squirm”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“How can you stop them?” I pressed. “That is the question,” Jansen said. He mused for a few moments. “Perhaps your master has the measure of it. Perhaps the only way to win is to adopt their methods.” I shook my head. “No. That cannot be the way. We are better than them.” “We are. But it is no use being better than them and dead.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“You see everything differently. Everything becomes beautiful. Life suddenly has so much value. Everything is to be savoured”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“When your life is in danger”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“The wise man seeks to please his friends; the fool seeks to please his enemies; the lunatic seeks to please everyone.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Sometimes it is better to simply cherish our memories of a dead person than try to reach out to them in the afterlife.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“And there is a further reason why this is not widely shared information: what good would it be for everyone in the Empire to know the truth of it? How bleak existence would suddenly become. If there was no afterlife – no afterlife in the way the Neman Church describes it – then what reason is there to behave morally”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“It is strange how when two people are of one mind”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Can you hear me?” I shouted – for I was shouting; the blast had rendered me half-deaf – and I fumbled for their hand. It was the hand of a woman”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Sir Konrad will have it out of him”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“At the end of a hard day’s study and labour”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Long life and old age are the rewards for cowardice.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“The battlefield is a brutal thing. There is nothing like it. In the heat and rage of it”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“You told me once that men who seek power are rarely fit to wield it.” “Aye.” “Perhaps the Emperor is of the same mind.” “Oh”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Stupidity loves company”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“When a wound becomes pustulent”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“No event simply occurs. Each is the culmination of countless factors that trace their long roots back to the beginning of time. It is easy to bemoan an era of great upheaval as a sudden commingling of misfortunes – but the discerning eye of history tells us that there are few coincidences where the schemes of man are concerned.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“Our enemies cannot grow powerful without the laxity and complicity of our friends.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith

“A soundless explosion of light and pressure the way a deaf man would experience a thunderstorm.”
― Richard Swan, The Tyranny of Faith