Quotes from M.C.A. Hogarth

Books are like people. They can be beautiful on the outside and it's wonderful when they are, but what counts is the inside. And the inside of a book can be communicated in a dozen different ways, and cheaply enough that everyone can have access. And everyone should.

Our choices shape our lives, and until we die we can make new ones.

Sometimes the things you fantasize about aren't what you end up really wanting

The best things. Adventures. Destinations. Knowledge. Relationships. All of them start with uncomfortable moments. It's only when you're grappling with something new that you might uncover something wonderful... but unfortunately, that means grappling with something new.

Everything else pales next to the fact that he's going to outlive us all. It's probably safer for him not to have intimate friends. I don't care how old you get, Sehvi said. It's never safer to have no friends.

It is not wise to mistake great effort for productive effort

that's the only place you find fairy tales, Hirianthial. In books. In the real world, there's always someone who has to clean the kitchen and take out the trash. There's always politics. There's always someone who wants to get ahead and doesn't care who they squash on their way up.

star charts this time, but rendered in calligraphy and gold and silver leaf, stunning juxtapositions of the technological future and the hand-crafted past.

Time is always precious," Hirianthial said softly. "Only if you fill it with something," Sascha said. "Otherwise it's marking the hours.

You can love friends enough to cross the worlds for them. Kuriel considered him a few moments longer, then dropped her gaze and petted his foreleg once. Maybe there is magic in the world.

That to make something, one must feel something, Jahir said. That there is no creation without a motive force. And that such forces should be positive, or the results become twisted and strange. Which would suggest that love creates the universe, or should.

I lived on anger, but it's the kind of fuel that uses you up even when it's pushing you forward.

He wondered if all camaraderie was actually dimly sensed psychic connection.

Eastern spirits are made from rice and their hangovers are apologetic while stabbing you in the kidneys," Eagles replied affably. "What you want, western man, are southern spirits. These will do you the courtesy of smashing you in the face as you drink them, rather than tricking you into thinking them mild and harmless.

You cannot be mother, therapist and healer-assist to six children and expect perfection, Jahir said. Of course I can, she answered. She snorted. I'm a nurse. It's what we do.

Trust is the ultimate strength.

How can someone so loved look so constantly for reasons to be unworthy of it?

The Chatcaava consumed themselves and others with their savagery, and the Eldritch dwindled into elegant irrelevance... and ignored by them both, save when it suited them, the Pelted labored on, creating these minor miracles out of spare parts and sheer ingenuity. What had the Emperor said once? The creed of your Alliance: we are born weak, therefore let us make strength from bits of metal and philosophy.

Amusing a woman too much is as good as courting her, and as much as I enjoyed her company I wasn't quite sure I was ready for more than that.

To love was to be vulnerable to pain. To laugh was to be sensitive enough for tears. To be open to joy was to be despair's fair prey.

So," Guy drawled. "When are we leaving?" "As soon as possible," Chester told him. "I have a wedding to put off.

That too is a truism among us, aunera. We say that your work must also provide your meditation, and if it does not soothe you to undertake some part of it, you are in the wrong work.)

That's how the universe keeps going, arii. It makes itself new in every generation that discovers it for the first time.

This folio never leaves this room, Natalie said, turning from the bureau with a leather folder in her arms. But you have plenty of time. Enjoy it, and when you're done set it back and join us for coffee. I couldn't possibly—it's so old— One of the woman's brow ridges quirked. And only young things need to be touched?