The Battle of Corrin

Some say it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. That is a defeatist attitude. I intend to rule everywhere, not just in Hell." - General Agamemnon New Memoirs

Successful creative energy involves the harnessing of controlled madness. I am convinced of this. —ERASMUS, The Mutability of Organic Forms

The greatest of mankind’s criminals are those who delude themselves into thinking they have done “the right thing.” —RAYNA BUTLER, sermons on Salusa Secundus

But our long struggle is held together by the slender threads of heroes and myths.

I cannot grasp the magnitude of your evil” “Proof that you lack imagination

The successful executive is like a poker player, either concealing his emotions or showing false ones, so that others cannot use them against him. —AURELIUS VENPORT, The Legacy of Business

Humans were foolish to build their own competitors—but they couldn’t help themselves. —ERASMUS, philosophical datanotes

up a series of ramparts that were guarded by neo-cymeks with translucent preservation canisters tucked safely in their undercarriages, like strange mechanical genitalia.

Stay on your guard,” Quentin transmitted over the comline. “He may just be playing dead.” “I hit him hard enough to make him play dead forever.

The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and—especially in the case of the Butlerian Jihad—thousands of years of humanity’s dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made. —PRINCESS IRULAN, preface to the History of the Butlerian Jihad

The history of warfare is made up of moments, and decisions, that could have gone either way. -Erasmus

Despite their biological flaws, human beings continue to see things that our most sophisticated sensors cannot detect, and they understand strange concepts that gelcircuitry minds cannot comprehend. It is no surprise, then, that so many of them go insane. —Erasmus Dialogues

Those who have everything value nothing. Those who have nothing value everything. —RAQUELLA BERTO-ANIRUL, Assessments of Philosophical Revelations

Many years ago, the robot had developed a special term in honor of Gilbertus’s burgeoning mental processes, his remarkable memory-organizational ability and capacity for logical thinking. “I am your mentor,” the robot had said. “You are my mentee. I am instructing you in mentation. Therefore, I will call you by a nickname I have derived from these terms. I will use the name whenever I am especially pleased with your performance. I hope you consider it a term of endearment.” Gilbertus had grinned at his master’s praise. “A term of endearment? What is it, Father?” “I will call you my Mentat.” And the name had stuck.

Loyalty is a clear-cut matter only for those with simple minds and no imagination. —GENERAL AGAMEMNON, New Memoirs

Death can be a friend, but only if he comes calling at the right time. —Navachristianity text (disputed translation)