It’s almost comical. Nobody knew anything, but everybody took that as proof of the hypothesis. - Adam-Troy Castro

It occurred to me a long time ago, Mr. Lastogne, that diplomacy has very little to do with making friends.

In short, they were like the complacent everywhere: in that they were already dead, and did not yet happen to know it…

He’d played me very well. He’s sensed my misanthropy, and played up that aspect of his own personality. He’d even accused the Porrinyards of the same failing. But was that just the typical gamesmanship of a habitual manipulator, or the obfuscation of a sociopath?