“Carthago delenda est.
How many humans would know what those words meant? How many Terrans, whose world had birthed them, and how many on the thousands of newly populated and rediscovered orbs, all frantically developing and building and reaching upwards to a dimly understood but fantastically powerful future? Just a handful, maybe, who had access to lost books written in dead languages. History had a penchant for repeating itself, though, for rehearsing old patterns in ever grander circuits even if the participants had forgotten their origins.”
Source: Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris
“There have always been those who would champion the merits of perception, instinct, or faith over Empirical Truth. But facts are immutable, regardless of who or what perceives them. Power will always belong to the one who knows them. To one accustomed to small triumphs, every victory is great. It is in my gift, and in yours, to see beyond.”
Source: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First
“A novel rough draft is like bread dough; you need to beat the crap out of it for it to rise.”
Source: No Plot? No Problem!
“Some men demand such pomp. They cannot accept the end of one era and the commencement of another without an occasion by which to mark it and give it meaning. Laurels must be given, honours and fair titles invented so that they may be bestowed upon favoured generals. Some men need recognition.' The shadows around the Emperor's throne deepened. But beneath the layers of obfuscation, deep within the myriad guises of that singularly unfathomable being, the Lion felt the Emperor behold His firstborn son.
'Some men,' the Emperor continued, 'do not.”
Source: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First
“The Lion had long held that the calibre of man was in reverse proportion to their need to make their worth known. It was a belief that had yet to be proven false.”
Source: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First
“Why did people ignore the lessons of history and their own senses, deny a law of life immutable as the seasons, and erect twisted barriers against it in their minds? He didn't know why, but they did. They wept for the goodness of half-imaginary yesterdays, yesterdays beyond altering, instead of anticipating and helping to shape the good of possible tomorrows. They found things to blame for the flow of events they wanted to stop and could not. They blamed God, their wives, government, books, fanciful combinations of unnamed men--sometimes even voices in their own heads. They lived tortured and unhappy lives, trying to dam Niagara with a teacup.”
Source: Love and War
“Resistance to change" is our fine ability to create reasons to crib and criticize.”
Source: Open the Windows: To the World Around You
“Even though change is an important part of growth, we still face a hard time liking it. We try to resist it for as long as we can before giving up. Not just in our personal lives, but even in our professional lives”
Source: 17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure
“People who appear to be resisting change may simply be the victim of bad habits. Habit, like gravity, never takes a day off.”
Source: The Science of Successful Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture
“People don't change. The world carries on spinning inexorably around but people don't spin with it. They dig their heels into the shifting sand and cling on for dear life.”
Source: The Mistress's Revenge