"There's little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious weed, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself."
"With words."
"Indeed, with words. Form an opinion, say it often enough and pretty soon everyone's saying it right back at you, and then it becomes a conviction, fed by unreasoning anger and defended with weapons of fear. At which point, words become useless..."
~Torvald and Karsa, pg. 157
"You must act soon, you know. You have choices to make. Hesitate too long and they will be made for you, to your regret."
~Felisin Younger, pg. 470
"Flesh may not lie, but the spirit can, Bonecaster."
~Trull Sengar, pg. 569
"Innocence is a virtue, lass, when it is temporary. You must pass from it to look back and recognize its unsullied purity. To remain innocent is to twist beneath invisible and unfathomable forces all your life, until one day you realize that you no longer recognize yourself, and it comes to you that innocence was a curse that had shackled you, stunted your, defeated your every expression of living."
"But, Cotillion, it is knowledge that makes one aware of his or her own chains."
"Knowledge only makes the eyes see what was there all along, Apsalar."
~Cotillion and Apsalar, pg. 575
"It concerns nature... and the exigency of maintaining balance. Pressures and forces are ever in opposition. And the striving is ever towards a balance. This is beyolnd the gods, of course--it is a current of existence--but no, beyond even that, for existence itself is opposed by oblivion. It is a struggle that encompases all, that defines every island in the Abyss. Or so I now believe. Life is answered by death. Dark by light. Overwhelming success by catastrophic failure. Horrific curse by breathtaking blessing. It seems the inclination of all people to lose sight of that truth, particularly when blinded by triumph upon triumph. See before me, if you will, this small fire. A modest victory. But if I feed it, my own eagerdelight is answered, until this entire plain is aflame, then the forest, then the world itself. Thus, an assertion of wisdom here... in the quenching of these flames once this meat is cooked. After all, igniting this entire world wil also kill everything in it, if not in flames then in subsequent starvation. Do you see my point, Monok Ochem?"
"I do not, Trull Sengar. This prefaces nothing."
"You are wrong, Monok Ochem. It prefaces... Everything." (Onrack)
[Trull Sengar glanced over, and answered with a smile of sadness overwhelming. Of utter... despair.]
~Trull Sengar, Monok Ochem, Onrack the Broken, pg. 873
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