Home > Work > City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)
121 " She looks up at Sigrud. “I am not sure if I should tell you, in fact. But I will, if you ask.” Sigrud shrugs. “I do not really care, to be frank.” Shara does not bother to hide her relief. One of the things she values most about her “secretary” is how little he cares for the intricacy of obfuscation: Sigrud is a hammer in a world of nails, and he is satisfied knowing only that. "
― Robert Jackson Bennett , City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)
122 " No, you aren’t sorry. You are a representative of your country. And countries do not feel sorrow. "
123 " I tried to learn. I wanted to learn to be righteous. I wanted to know. But I could only pretend. "
124 " She glances at Sigrud. He stares straight ahead—maybe. It is always difficult to tell what Sigrud is paying attention to. He sits so still, and seems so blithely indifferent to all around him, that you almost treat him like a statue. Either way, he seems neither impressed nor interested in the city: it is simply another event, neither threatening violence nor requiring it, and thus not worth attention. "
125 " Forgetting.” she said, “is a beautiful thing. When you forget, you remake yourself. The Continent must forget. It is trying not to—but it must. For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must forget it was ever a caterpillar at all. Then it will be as if the caterpillar never was, & there was only ever the butterfly. "
126 " A people believe in a god”—she completes the circle—“and the god tells them what to believe. It’s a cycle, like water flowing into the ocean, then up to the skies, and into rain, which falls and flows into the ocean. But it is different in that ideas have weight. They have momentum. Once an idea starts, it spreads and grows and gets heavier and heavier until it can’t be resisted, even by the Divine. "