All of creation suffers, young ones. Only in accepting our own mortality can we make a difference. Only in bearing the burden of our failures can we find the strength to go on. Only in detachment from glory, or honour, or jealousy... from life itself can we hope to spare others from grief. We are Doom Eagles. And we are dead already. -- Librarian Secundus Thryn of the Doom Eagles

So, say, when they're out in their little boats and they hear voices in the night, they forget whatever destination they had in mind and they go tearing straight towards the sound, screaming their heads off.

Evil is just a measure of how much your choices take away other people's.

In quiet moments I can easily believe my spirit's so toxic, so noxious, that it repels people like the stench of rot. Better to keep to myself. Easier to push folks away than to watch them learn to hate you.

There's no seduction any more, diary. No subtlety. No tidy-yourself-up in this world. No need for personal pride. There's just the things you're prepared to do - for survival, for fulfillment, for whatever-the-hell-it-is you really need - and the things you're not.

Broken ain't the same as worthless. And sometimes the fix is worse than the break.

On a long enough timeline, every story ends. Lives always fail. Love always fades. And every secret learned is one less thing to dream about.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that stability requires far more effort to restore than to disrupt.