The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain Quotes

“Certain things are always with us.” She counted on her fingers. “One: scarcity. Limited space and resources. Two: the need to maintain order, which, when things are scarce, is always under threat. Three: surplus. Too many people, not enough stuff: the result is extra people. What are you going to do with all these extra people? If you’re smart, you’ll turn them into a business. That’s the Hold. So there will always be a Hold. Because the Ship is a problem. And the Hold is the answer.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

“The boy had never seen either river or sea. “I don’t understand,” he said, and the prophet said sadly that he himself was as ignorant as the boy, that he possessed nothing but bones and a chain and a wish to touch the truth. This longing for awareness he called the Practice.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

“One is a River.
Everyone is a Sea.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

“And he would think: I was there. That was the Practice. He saw that his urge to draw was indeed the desire to breathe and know and live, and that this was why the prophet had sheltered his gift.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

“Now, looking at the boy, she sank again in the weight of that long-ago evening, its dismal, colorless air, as if no time had passed, as if time would never pass, as if change itself changed nothing.”
― Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain