"He’d spent his entire exile schooling himself to face that he would never get what he wanted. People didn’t, sometimes. So you made a life as best you could."

“Nothing is "always," my dear. Except the greater truths, one of which is that power begets politics, and politics are more dangerous than war because there are fewer rules.”

“'Are they trained to treat everyone as a servant?'”

“War is a convenient fix for government problems if it happens somewhere else. To other people.”

“It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I talked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.”

“Finally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of honor, and it’s a villain.”

“I am old, but the word to me means familiar, comfortable. Accustomed after long and venerable use. Not dilapidated and useless.”