‘I have invented countless things that would prove of great value to many people. And that presents me with a dilemma. I must ask myself, with each invention, what possible abuses await such an object? More often than not, I conclude that those abuses outweigh the value of the invention. I call this Dev’s First Law of Invention.’
‘You are obsessed with laws.’
‘Perhaps. In any case, the law is simple, as all true laws must be—’
‘You have a law for that, too?’
‘Founding principle, rather than law. In any case, ethics are the first consideration of an inventor following a particular invention.’
‘You call that simple?’
‘The statement is, the consideration is not.’
‘Now that sounds more like a true law.’
The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson, book 6 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen