“..., but hearts did not always count years and degrees the same way and she still felt the sadness keenly.” HeartSadness Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“She said I would lose my throne, but if I didn't continue the reforms, I would lose my country too. It had never been properly mine anyway, this throne, and it meant less to me than these lands and peoples who'd been entrusted to my hands.” PeopleEmperorThroneReforms Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“They wanted me to forget that there had been other songs, hands and hearts.” Forgetting Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“There was no need to fear new things. Shaking hands with a foreigner didn't make me foreign.” ChinaForeignersEmperor Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“I listened with interest, but thought it too sad a thing that we and the foreigners knew each other only in this way: they came conquering, and we went with apologies forced from our lips.” ChinaForeignersEmperor Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“It mattered nothing to me that someone was Christian or whatever else. It wasn't important what name a man gave Heaven, for the names were many, and many too the altars and shrines, rituals and prayers.” ReligionHeaven Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“But if there was one thing I'd been learning these last years, it was that there were big gaps between what people taught and the desires they affirmed, and how they applied these things in reality.” RealityDesires Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor
“The darkness here was different, much louder for one thing, layered with voices and calls, people coming and going.” DarknessChinaEmperor Book:The Sunset Emperor Source: The Sunset Emperor