QUOTE : Describe for me, if you can, the nature of this wisdom.’<br /><br />Anomander snorted impatiently. ‘Wisdom is surrender.’<br /><br />‘To what?’<br /><br />‘Complexity.’<br /><br />‘To what end?’<br /><br />‘Swallow it down, spit it out in small measures, to make palatable what many may not otherwise comprehend.’<br /><br />‘An arrogant pose, First Son.’<br /><br />‘I do not claim it, Azathanai, just as I refuse for myself the notion of rule. And, in the name of worship, I am lost in doubt, if not outright disbelief.’<br /><br />‘And why is that?’<br /><br />‘Power does not confer wisdom, nor rightful authority, nor faith in either of the two. If it offers a caress, so too can it by force make one kneel. The former is by nature suspect, while the latter — well, it can at least be said that it does not disguise its truth.’<br /><br />‘You learn for liberty.’<br /><br />‘If I do, then I am the greater fool, because liberty is not in itself a virtue. It wins nothing but the false belief in one's own utterly unassailable independence. even the beasts will not plunge to that depth. No, if I yearn for anything, it is for responsibility. An end to the evasions, the lies spoken in the mind and the lies spoken to others, the endless game of deeds without blame, and all the causes of seeming justice behind which hide venal desires. I yearn for the coward's confession, and understand me well here, Caladan: we are all cowards.