Babel

One individual choice, made at just the right time. This was how they defied momentum.

‘That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.’

seizing control of the story is how you in turn control them.

History isn’t a premade tapestry that we’ve got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can form it. Make it. We just have to choose to make it.’

We’re trapped in a symbiotic relationship with the levers of power. We need their silver. We need their tools. And, loath as we are to admit it, we benefit from their research.’

For a country that profited so well from trading in spices, its citizens were violently averse to actually using them;

all sacrifice does is make you feel better. It doesn’t help the rest of us, so it’s an ultimately meaningless gesture.

Robin had always been willing, in theory, to give up only some things for a revolution he halfway believed in. He was fine with resistance as long as it didn’t hurt him.

‘Languages aren’t just made of words. They’re modes of looking at the world. They’re the keys to civilization.