You must have been a very serious young man." "Actually, I used to laugh a lot more than I do now." He shrugged. "That was when I thought one moral m… - Mike Resnick

I obviously have more faith in these people than you do, John."
"Maybe that's because I know them better.

Somewhere along the way he learned the most important lesson of all, which was that a king with no heirs had better never turn his back on anybody.

“You know,” he said unhappily, “I never did like you much. You were always too ambitious, always scheming and plotting.”
“Why should I deny it?” she said calmly. “I’ll only add that it’s people like you who made it easy.”
“What’ll you do when you finally get to the top, and there are no more bodies to climb over?”
“Mostly, I’ll enjoy it,” she replied.