It is said that the gods play games with the lives of men. But what ga — 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)"

"By and large medical assistance was nonexistent and people had to die inefficiently, without the aid of doctors. (p. 136)"

"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)"

"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)"

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