You must surely know by now, Winters, that a leader’s authority is limited to giving her followers orders that they will actually obey. - Genevieve Cogman

There were clear class divisions among the protestors: the upper-class ones stood back and gave the orders, while the lower-class ones did the actual work. Some things didn’t change, no matter how many worlds you visited.

There is no truth to peace," she said. "Peace is at best a brief interlude between hostilities. The treaties which might be signed here are no more than lies. The field of battle is more honest.

The problem with paranoia was that if you let it rule all your decisions, then you would miss some perfectly good opportunities.