One does not spy on one's own people," ZeSpiole informed him. "One has, rather, conduits of communication which lead to the common man. - Iain Banks

Mocking the wisdom that comes with age is a fit sport only for those who expect never to attain much of it themselves

Details matter, though, don't you think?" he said. "Sometimes what appear to be utterly inconsequential actions have the most enormous results. Chance makes the casual momentous. It is the fulcrum upon which the levers of action rest.

We really are taking this person’s existence as being a fact, not a myth?
∞
We are. It turns out that the myth which has been so carefully fostered is that his existence is mythical.