The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun'

I began to walk, fearing a hundred things that would never harm me and utterly ignorant of the real risks I ran.

On this ship I was a child again, knowing no more of the world around me than a child does.

and I thought then (as I think now) how strange it was that they should have been so brave when they faced a horror, but such cowards when confronted by the palinode of fate.

enjoy all the authority and luxury it would bring, and most of all that pleasure in dealing justice and rewarding worth that is the final delight of power.

being—for what being can be stranger than oneself, or act more inexplicably?

It’s easy—very easy—to slay a ruler. But it’s very difficult to prevent a worse one from coming to his place.”

It is said that they who wander in darkness, and still more they who do so in a mist, merely scribe circles across the plain.

I think, raising me a second time; but for many things (of which that moment was for me the chief) there can be no second time.

But they don’t really do anything, and in their hearts they know it. They’re afraid to use their power, or at least the best of them are, knowing they can’t use it wisely.”