Heartlessness wasn’t the sole province of the rich. - Ian Tregillis

Alchemy was useful but never compassionate.

Well," he said, "you must be feeling very proud of yourself right now."\n"It occurs to me that I might be an underappreciated genius." She paused to clutch the mast again during a particularly hard gust. "But I'll tell you something. It's not so wonderful, learning you were right all along to suspect the world is conspiring against you.

Every additional second the king didn’t take a bullet in the eye seemed a good sign.