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Is the only challenge in the world to be greed and viciousness? Is the only satisfying power the power of the ascent over men, the only dream, ambition? And must the alternative to greed, evil, ambition—be only sluggishness?

— Tanith Lee Delirium's Mistress (1986)

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More quotes by Tanith Lee

If she had supposed the gods ever listened, she would have prayed.

Night's Sorceries (1987)

Anxiety grew, the fear that always comes when an established pattern falters.

The Birthgrave (1975)

Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.

Night's Master (1978)

The grape of truth is often bitter, but not to taste it in its season would be to waste the vine.

Quest for the White Witch (1978)

There is one sound way a man can bind a woman to him, the same way she will bind him, and with the same rope.

Vazkor, Son of Vazkor (1978)

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tanith Lee (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.