Is it not written in Sage Kon Fiji’s Tales of Filial Devotion that the younger brother should offer the choicest specimens in a basket of plums to the elder brother as a token of his respect? Is it also not written that an elder brother should try to protect the younger brother from difficult tasks beyond his ability, since it is the duty of the stronger to defend the weaker? The essays are uncrackable nuts to me, but juicy plums to you. I am trying to live as a good Moralist with my offer

a great man deserves to not have his life end by chance

The world may not be fair, but we must strive to make it so.”

Dara may be a land at peace, but the hearts of men are never peaceful. I have learned much about fanning the flames of dissatisfaction, and you have a figure that is meant to ride at the head of a crowd

They led a life that was common but not commonplace, meek but not mean, tiring but not tiresome

It was the fate of the poor to toil and endure, wasn’t it?

Aki smiled and said nothing. It was the fate of the poor to toil and endure, wasn’t it? Surely the gods would not deprive Mimi of the ability to do so

Mimi-tika, is the fisherman evil who harvests the fruits of the sea? Is the farmer evil who cuts off ears of sorghum? Is the weaver evil who boils the cocoon of the silkworm and unravels its debut dress—now a shroud?

Great lords—whether mortal or immortal—do what they do because their concerns are not ours. We suffer because we are the grass upon which giants tread.”

Courage is better displayed when it seems all is lost, when despair appears the only rational course

True courage is to insist on seeing when all around you is darkness.”

“I am but the lowest of the Hundred Flowers,” said the orchid. “But the tapestry of Dara is woven not only from the proud chrysanthemum or the arrogant winter plum, the bamboo who holds up great houses or the coconut who provides sweet nectar and pleasing music. Chicory, dandelion, butter-and-eggs, ten thousand species of orchids, and countless other flowers—we have no claim to the crests of the great noble families, and we are not cultivated in gardens and not gently caressed by the fingers of great ladies and eager courtiers. But we also fight our war against hail and storm, against drought and deprivation, against the sharp blade of the weeding hoe and the poisonous emanations of the herbicide-sprayer. We also have a claim on time, and we deserve a god who understands that every day in the life of the common flower is a day of battle.”

I’m sorry!” the man said from behind her. “It’s refreshing to hear an original observation. I meant no offense at all

It was thoughtless of me,” the man said. “I offer you my apologies again.”

think they were both very learned,” said the man, smiling again. “But that is not the same as wise

Sometimes knowledge can get in the way of a friendship,” said Toru, his tone serious. “I like how we can converse now as equals. I don’t want to lose that

Models can be helpful in understanding the world, but models must be refined by testing against observation. You have to both experience reality and construct it.”

I think all the Hundred Schools have some wisdom to teach us. They are like different tools for shaping and understanding reality, and a talented craftsman can gain insight into the world and remake it with their aid

The road you ask me to lead you on is winding and rugged, and it requires knowing when to delay the truth and how to craft it so that it is more pleasing to powerful ears. These are not skills I possess in abundance either. I can enlarge your vision and show you how to pick out the patterns hidden all around you, but there are patterns, patterns of power, that I cannot teach you to read.”

there was no need to bring that up at a happy moment like this

“I wasn’t drunk! I was only . . . wakefully weak

The manners of a camp on the battlefield are not always the right etiquette for a court at peace. As the Ano sages said

The cruben who breaches freely in open sea may need to float gently in a harbor filled with many fishing boats

Howl when you see a wolf, scratch your head when you see a monkey

It’s possible to think of the laws as a complicated machine, and by adjusting the right levers and dials, you can make people do anything, just as dialing up the heat on the stove drives air out, causing the balloon to rise, and dialing down the flame creates  a vacuum for the cold air to fill, causing the balloon to fall.”

Men are only motivated by profit and pain, but that is no sin, for all such desires are the shadow of the desire to transform earth into heaven

A good idea is more easily absorbed if it is given the right expression,

Thank you. The sincerity of your belief is commendable

proper manners, like good handwriting, will soothe the minds of others so that they are more receptive to your ideas

Sometimes you kick the dog because you’re aiming for the master

I thank Your Imperial Majesty for being so solicitous of me,” replied Gin. “But Géjira is doing just fine. I follow the example of the emperor: A fine palace for me is not as important as the welfare of the people

A piece of jade wrapped in a dust rag remains a piece of jade,” said Zomi. “But dog turds wrapped in silk will still stink up the room.”

rites were important because they enacted and embodied the respect due to each rank. Ranks are made real—the technical term in Moralism is reified—through practice. Abstract principles are given life through performance. Just as applying the same rules to friends and foes alike gives meaning to honor, giving away possessions supplies content to charity, and reducing punishments and taxes provides significance to mercy, the adherence to seemingly arbitrary codes of behavior can reify a structure for society that leads to stability.

intent drives action, action can also drive intent. By acting morally, one becomes moral

I would caution that the desire for perfection, for a fresh start, is very close to a philosophical tyranny that disregards the wisdom of the past

it is a balance between the new and the old that we must strive for.”
“I thought we’re striving for Truth.”
“We’re not gods; we can’t always tell truth from error, and so it’s better to be cautious.”

I may have been the spark that began the fire,” said Zomi. “But trust me, I was not responsible for the dangerous accumulation of fuel.”

I do not impeach your integrity. But an honest man may still administer an unfair examination.

What you call beauty and grace and suppleness in writing are nothing but the consensus of men who have grown used to hearing each other

They dress up these visions with citations to dead philosophers, but all I see is ugliness and hypocrisy

Not a single one of them has ever had to work for his next meal or had to beg a corvée administrator for a reprieve.”
Kuni Garu’s face, hidden behind the dangling cowrie veil, flinched.
“I doubt any of them can tell an ear of sorghum apart from an ear of wheat, or knows the weight of the fish in the boat after a day of trawling in Gaing Gulf. They have never sweated after an honest day’s labor or bled from blisters made by swinging the sickle or hauling in the net.

What do those in your College of Advocates know of the beauty prized by women that isn’t for the delectation of men? Or the plight of women who must raise children without any of the advantages given to men? Or the reasons some sell themselves to the indigo houses? Or the causes that make the choice of a marriage akin to bondage seem reasonable to so many

You are a fledgling eagle heading for the skies; you’re the hatchling turtle diving into the sea

random chance governs our fates more than we’d like to admit.”

Before birth, all of us are mere potentials. We have no control over the moment of incarnation, when we might end up as the son of an emperor or the daughter of a peasant. The veil is lifted as we come into the world, and we find ourselves holding a box that determines our fates without regard to our merit. Yet all the great philosophers have always said that our souls are equal in weight in the eyes of the World Father, Thasoluo. It would be most strange if our own sense of justice, after being cultivated by the wisdom of the sages, cannot match that of a child of four.”

compromise is the lubricant that keeps the machinery of the state running

It takes as much time to watch a sapling grow into a towering oak as it does to cultivate scholarship in regions without a tradition of learning,” said Kuni. “But young men do not have such patience, and interim measures are needed

t is not good to indulge our appetites unchecked

If the young do not have radical ideas, the world will never change

Each fresh wave coming to land from the sea is brash, bold, radical, and wild like a newborn idea; the wave is worn down by the unyielding reality of the hard land and eventually dissipates, exhausted, to be replaced by the next wave in an apparently futile endeavor. Yet the cumulative efforts of such successive surges, over generations and eons, carved the coastline of Dara

trust is fickle and will not bear a heavy load

Thank you for your solicitousness, Your Imperial Majesty. My mother is used to her way of life, and she thinks she will be unhappy in the bustle of the capital

The scholars grumble when the wives of the emperor interfere in  the affairs of state,” Jia said, a light, bitter smile on her face. “We must minimize the extent to which my role is visible. Such is the plight of women who have not risen through the ranks by merit, as you have

The words are dead, but I am alive

Actions do not have meaning by themselves,” said Cano. “All that matters is the perspective in which they are seen. If the mirror is distorted, a fat man will appear thin, and a loyal man will appear as a traitor.

I have been betrayed countless times in my life, and I, in turn, have betrayed those who thought me subjugated by a promise. Experience has taught me that even the bond between parent and child is no guarantee of faith. Obedience can be enforced only through terror and death, not grand gestures invoking the names of the gods or invisible spirits. A scene of carnage will pacify an unruly population more than all the pretty speeches in the world.”

Good and evil are mere labels we place on deeds that benefit or harm us, and I have wagered the lives of my thanes and warriors upon a mere hope for refuge in the shoreless sea. To them I owe every duty, but to you and yours: nothing. A better life for my people is the only good for which I strive

did nothing more than encourage their natural tendencies, which, given time, would have come to full bloom. No matter how much I may have paved their way, the choice to rebel was ultimately theirs. A wolf can never be an obedient dog, nor a shark a tame porpoise.”

You think I poisoned the ground; I think I merely drew poison out of it. You think I tipped a bucket; I think I merely made it fill faster

Without dreams and the striving to achieve them, how are we better than the kelp and seaweed that merely drift with the current

Kuni nodded. “I know it’s unfair. But there is no other course. We are not always in control of our own fates, and sometimes we must  live with mistakes—and even beg others to live with them. The roles we play dictate courses of action

You have had too many successes at too young an age,” said Gin. “But humiliation can be a good teacher as well. I once crawled between the legs of a man and thought I would never again be able to lift my head; yet he taught me the need to play the long game. You have talent, Zomi Kidosu, but you must learn to guide that talent with wisdom, which can only be taught by failures.”

A soldier does not always have many choices, but I wanted to give you the choice to live up to an image you want others to remember

Do not invoke the name of the All-Father,” said Tenryo. “Do not blame your failure on the All-Father, just as I do not attribute my success to Him. It is only the weak who think that the gods care about the affairs of men; the strong know that they make their own path in this world, and the gods always favor those who triumph.”

Don’t be so morose,” said Pékyu Tenryo. “The rightness and wrongness of things must be looked at from many perspectives. If you had not helped us, more grandfathers and grandmothers would have died in winters on the scrublands and many more children would remain unborn.”

This might be wise politics, but she was sure it was the wrong strategy

Suppose I agree with your analysis. What terms will you offer me, Emperor of Dara

A real friend is a mirror who reflects the truth back to us

Even wolves can’t kill all the sheep, and a desperate flock is capable of great feats

Shame is a lie told to you by those who would enslave you rather than free you

Lady Zy stood by her husband Lurusén and dove into the Liru River with him not for love, but for a shared ideal

I may not be her equal in talent, yet I do not think I lack her courage

You have lived an interesting life,” said Kiji, whose voice sounded like the beating of wings, both feathered and leather. “You’ve soared as high as a dandelion seed riding the wind above the clouds; you’ve dived as deep as a cruben cruising the currents far beneath the waves.”
“You betrayed reluctantly; you loved passionately; you sacrificed the affections of your children and wives; you were also a good father and husband; you defeated a tyrant; you brought peace to Dara; thousands died because of you; millions more were saved because of you; you tried to balance and accommodate competing interests; you strove to speak for those without a voice and wield power for those without influence,” said Fithowéo, the blind god of war as well as the club maiden for the All-Father. “You know the world isn’t perfect, but you’ve never ceased to believe that it could be perfected.”

I submit myself to the judgment of history

I have sinned in my time. I have stood by as innocent men and women died for nonexistent crimes, and I have watched the helpless suffer while I saved my strength for another day. I betrayed a man as dear as my brother in the service of what I believed was a greater  good, and I took petty vengeance on those who treated me ill in the past. Too often have I made decisions based on the long view, thinking that immediate sacrifices were acceptable for some ideal on the horizon

Though all life is an experiment, there are moments of purity of purpose that demand no justification. Today, Dara is under threat of a dark storm that has no comparison. There is no long view that can justify enslavement and capitulation. When the only alternative is death and servitude, I believe all of us know what must be the right choice.”

It wasn’t possible for fathers to fight all the wars for their children. It was time for the next wave to come to shore, for the next generation to stand up and be counted.

Our lives are but  brief respites between stormy veils cast over the eternal unknown, and we must be guided in our deeds by the inner compass of our will, not what others may think of us. Yet now that death has come to us, we shall make this a day that will live on in song and story

You speak of destiny, yet what is destiny but accumulated chance made into a story in retrospect?”