You are not to tell my parents,” he said, with his arm over his eyes, “but I drank a little brandy from a glass someone left and I am not feeling wel… - C. J. Cherryh

Change, son of mine, should be applied like salt to a dish — best taste it, understand it, and then decide.

But, oh, how precious those things were! To look at the sky, breathe the cold wind, have fingers nipped by chill and skin stung red and heart stirred to life, gods, he had been dead until Tristen arrived and asked him the first vexing question, and posed him the first insoluble puzzle, and marveled at hailstones and mourned over falling leaves. What miracles there were all around....

Given ignorance in the mix, stupidity was at least as common in politics as astute maneuvering;