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

“Then you must know that all are scourged alike. And yet the nearer to success, the worse the pain each feels. That is a law we cannot change.”

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

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.”

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

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.

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

“It is easy for those who need not judge, or judging need not toil for justice, to complain of inequity and talk of impartiality. When one must actually judge, as Tzadkiel does, he finds he cannot be just to one without being unjust to another.

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.

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