Aristocrats might shrug, but commoners, dreading any collapse of the social order, wanted the rules of behavior to be observed. - Robert Silverberg

I could have given him false consolation then, I suppose. I could have lied, and said that what he had seen was a fever dream, a fantasy, that Athilan would endure forever and a day. But I’m not much good at lying. And I knew that he wasn’t looking for lies from me, or consolations, or anything else that might make him feel good for a moment at the expense of the truth.

I felt an unmanly pity for the beasts we slew, for I fear I don’t really have the killer instinct. I don’t have the starving instinct either, though, and so I fired away.

Take this as a bit of easy wisdom: people who try to rule over other people are going to be hated.