The great commandment of the narratives is that your life must be meaningful, said Charon. If knowing the truth strips the meaning away, then the tru… - Karl Schroeder

That’s what being human means: to be master of your own fate.

In the end, her written ideology, the philosophy and new morals she had preached, were all means to an end. That end could never be reached; Armiger had taught her that. If so, then what mattered their disappointment, their disillusionment? They would hate her for leaving them alive, but they would be alive, and a life lived in bitterness was still better than a death colored by useless fanaticism.

The richest billionaire has to realize that the gods next door take no more notice of him than he would a bug.