I couldn’t yet see the limits of my life, but he could see the limits of his. His life was thin, and he had a hunger for recognition. - C. J. Cherryh

...seeing the mystery of forest leaves and the wonder in a water-polished stone, a light had come on him, a bright, bright hope, that this was the true world, all around him, truer than his darkening sight. And ever after that and forever, he hoped for himself, and whenever he thought of dark and practical deeds, why, that light distracted him toward this dream he had....

Murder has been done for far lesser things than thrones. Most dangerous when the possessors of thrones forget how they came by them.

The world was full of life, more life than they could hold back with guns or fences; it came into the town at night; it seduced the children and year by year crept closer.