sun eater
Religion and science are old enemies. They're not, brother. Only fools think so.
There's no correlation between the orderliness of a man's work space and that of his mind.
Not once in nearly twenty standard years—not once—had either of my parents shown me an ounce, an instant of physical affection. That one embrace made up for nearly all of that. I didn’t move for the longest time, and it was only with a sort of shellshocked slowness that I moved to embrace her in return. But I did not cry; I did not make a sound
Christopher Ruocchio • Empire of Silence
Focus blurs, Gibson used to say. Focus blinds. You must take in all of a thing by seeing the totality of it, not by focusing on minutiae. This is as important for a ruler as it is for a painter.
fear is death to reason, reason death to fear
Fear is a strange thing, irrational, but incredible in the way it achieves truth faster than reason.
Christopher Ruocchio • Empire of Silence
Augustine once said that if there are such things as the past and the future, they do not exist as such but are only the present in their own times. The past, he says, exists only in memory and the future only in expectation. Neither is real
True lessons require not only knowing, but that the student practices his knowledge again and again. Thus knowledge becomes us, and we become more than the animal and the machine. That is why the best teachers are students always, and the best students are never fully educated.
From Howling Dark, Hadrian remembering Gibson's lesson
Men are slower to act from principle than self-interest, and far slower to act on principle than jealousy or revenge.