If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I’d already lost it. - Lois McMaster Bujold

His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

Taste the betrayal of the gods, then; I have dined on it for ages.

You have a little time yet. You can say a lot in a little time, if you stick to words of one syllable.