A.H. Septimius, Crowns Of Amara: The Return Of The Oracle
24 quotes
"Throughout the empire, it was whispered that although the husband waded through mud, the wife walked upon water. She, it was said, was graced with a gentle touch which tamed the most vicious of men."
"Men of honour will always outstay men of undeserved rank."
"Those who looked with revulsion at the oppressive might of her arms, were obliged to marvel at the egalitarian nature of her social programmes."
"He returned her gaze, yearning for sentimental solace; love which emanated from a familiar source, mattered little how bedevilling. They shared an intimate moment, a silent tête-à-tête, which seemed to confront doubts each harboured."
"Things I fear will forever change and we old souls can do little but be swayed by the winds."
"If their social institutions were abhorrent, their unwritten constitution bordered upon the absurd. The absolutist monarchs of the ancient kingdoms of Amara looked with detestation at the Shazarian constitutional monarchy. Yet this was no time to demonstrate loathing of the upstart nation; condescension could wait until after Sixto had been defeated."
"Came they, in their droves, one after the other, hundred after hundred, thousand after thousand, engulfing all before them, each line a merciless wave from a boundless sea of bold men."
"Thirty years of marriage to Erasto had taught her much, namely that men were reckless by nature, full of bluster, most incompetent, the rest fortunate to have a wife to keep them from allowing their innate ineptitude to engulf all around them."
"If they succeed, you will not be packed off to some idyllic farm, where you can write bad poetry, we will both be executed."
"What had, moments ago, appeared a dangerous gambit, now seemed an elegant coup de maître."
"Educated and ambitious, with their own forthright opinions, the women of the Garvey set did more to determine political direction than many councillors. Their involvement in public life and political machinations was such that the Shylonian ambassador was able to report, to his monarch, that the women of the Garvey clique were ‘politicians first, homemakers second."
"Power is a beautiful thing."
"History will remember him as a savage, but that's because we write the histories."
"There is no greater service than that rendered to one’s nation, no greater glory one can seek than that in the name of one’s people."
"The world needed gentle men to rule if the people were to live in peace, not the warmongers and conniving men she so often witnessed wearing the crimson of the Imperial Council."
"Above all, he loathed men who beat women; for, real men didn’t exercise their strength on frail creatures, they joined the army and put Shazaria’s enemies in their graves."
"I consider my wife and children in all things; yet, I must consider Amara also."
"Do not try to be your father boy, it is a hopeless pursuit, particularly when you, like I, have a father of such colossal proportions."
"They will not be swayed, they have power in their sights and are blinded by its alluring glister."
"What is rank if not protection from the consequences which fall upon common men?"
"The cold surface somehow enabled him to remain calm; he kept his eyes upon the summit, awaiting the arrival of reinforcements. The pace of his breathing remained steady, as did his pulse; it was in such moments men came of age; ‘the night is ours, the night is ours’, Jelani whispered."
"To discover what becomes of men who do not pay debts owed to Ratilla, one must visit the underworld."
"Yet Theo had become engrossed in his own tale, transporting himself back to the night of which he spoke. In the distance, he could again see the faces he had encountered on that fateful night, the twisted bodies and pained expressions of the men who no longer walked the realms of men, but those of the underworld gods."
"Crowns are hourly tumbling."