Whispers of Scorn

I am not sorry for who I had to become in order to survive.

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.

Why do I not forget?

The spirit is of no avail against the sword, but the spirit together with the sword will always win out over the sword alone.

we who live and die for ourselves, we who are malevolent and benevolent, who is humane?

Solemn and deep and secretive.

This was. I saw it, schemed it, bled it. I was then.

There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.

What is the holiness of empire? It is to know collapse. Everything can collapse. Houses, bodies and enemies collapse when their rhythm becomes deranged.