Survivors do not mourn together. They each mourn alone, even when in the same place. Grief is the most solitary of all feelings. Grief isolates, and every ritual, every gesture, every embrace, is a hopeless effort to break through that isolation. None of it works. The forms crumble and dissolve. To face death is to stand alone.
-Steven Erikson, Malazan book of the Fallen
“What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality for those who may oppose us.”
"The Empire played checkers while the Rebels played chess, but Thrawn, Thrawn played a whole different game that only he knew the rules to."
“One may learn a great deal about a people by the stories they tell of others.” - GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN
"No one is immune to failure. All have tasted the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. A warrior must not dwell on that failure, but must learn from it and continue on."
“There are things in the universe that are simply and purely evil. A warrior does not seek to understand them, or to compromise with them. He seeks only to obliterate them."
"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion"
“A great tactician creates plans. A good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him. A fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval. Those with no tactical ability at all may never understand or accept it"
"Better be a lord in hell than a slave in heaven"
"It is said that one should keep one's allies within view, and one's enemies within reach".
A valid statement.
One must be able to read an ally's strengths, so as to determine how best to use him.
One must similarly be abe to read en enemy's weaknesses, so as to determine how best to defeat him.
But what of friends?
There is no accepted answer, perhaps because true friendship is so exceedingly rare.
But I have formulated my own.
A friend need not be kept within either sight or within reach.
A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path.
If one is fortunate, those paths will for a time join.
But if the paths separate, it is comforting to know that a friend still graces the universe with his skills, and his viewpoint, and his presence.
For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone."
