He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.

If I am the pawn of the gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make my mind up for me.

I am not sure I trust you.""You can trust me with your life, My King.""But not with my wine, obviously. Give it back.

I didn't think about being king,” he said, his voice hoarse.Eddis stared. “Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn't think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?

I wonder if people always choose what will make them unhappy.

Would you like to hear more romance of the evening? He told me that the Guard should be reduced by half, and I threw an ink jar at his head.""Is that when he cried?""He ducked," Attolia said dryly.Grown more confident of the queen's humor, Relius said, "I had not pictured you for a fishwife.""Lo, the transforming power of love.

Mother why does the River not riseIt is not the River's timeWhy does the seed not sproutIt is not the seed's timeWhy does the rain not fallthe leaf not unfurl itselfWhere is the hind and why does she not graze the fields before usit is not their timeThe River knows its timeThe seed knows its time The rain the leaf and the hindThey know their timeThe River will rise the seed will sproutThe rains come down and the leaves unfurlThe hind will bring her children to graze before usAll in their time

I think a good book is a good book forever.I don't think they get less good because times change.

I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it..."My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens.""So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed."You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said."I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that drumstick?" I asked."I am. Stop staring at it.

The Attolians liked to point out with a snicker that there was no sign anywhere of the king's hand at work.

I'll be your minister--""Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind.""I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly."Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?""That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it.""My earrings?""What earrings?

These people make my family look easy to get along with.

Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.

It isn't an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don't know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself.

If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.

Oh, Lady," said the woodcutter, "my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry.

But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness.

... I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one.

No friend had I made there, but I wasn't with this group to make friends, and besides, he sneered too much. I've found that people who sneer are almost always sneering at me.

The Lord of Rags and Tatters.

Are you telling me in your own gentle way to stop whining?""Yes.""I don't feel like a hero. I feel like an idiot.""I think heroes generally do, but those men believe in you.""I did wait until I was outside before I threw up.

He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.

He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty and maddening, but he doesn't ever quit.

All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung.

Ambiades, I realized, was the kind of person who liked to put people in a hierarchy, and he wanted me to understand that I was at the bottom of his. He was supposed to treat me politely in spite of my subservient position, and I was supposed to be grateful.For my part, I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one. I might bow to the superior force of the magus and Pol, but I wasn't going to bow to him. Neither of us moved.

No man can choose to serve only himself when he has something to offer his state. No one can put his own wishes above the needs of so many.

I know that if you don't look for an alternative, Sophos, you certainly won't find one.

That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.

Were you lying?""I never lie," he said piously. "About what?""The sand, the snake."For a young man who never lied, he seemed surprisingly unoffended by the question.

I am a master of foolhardy plans.