By and large medical assistance was nonexistent and people had to die — Guards! Guards!

"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. (p. 3)"

"Down there," he said, "are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they dont say no." (p. 337)"

"Noble dragons dont have friends. The nearest they can get to the idea is an enemy who is still alive. (p. 188)"

"Disgusting, this sort of thing, really," mused Sergeant Colon. "People goin around in coaches like this when theres people with no roof to their heads."

"There was a thoughtful pause in the conversation as the assembled Brethren mentally divided the universe into the deserving and the undeserving, and put themselves on the appropriate side. (pp. 13-14)"

"This seemed absolutely right, to Vimess way of thinking. There was no difference at all between the richest man and the poorest beggar, apart from the fact that the former had lots of money, food, power, fine clothes, and good health. But at least he wasnt any better. Just richer, fatter, more powerful, better dressed and healthier. It had been like that for hundreds of years. (p. 173)"