All men begin as good men. What they are taught as children, what is expected of them as young men, is either the armor about that goodness or the flaw that allows evil in.

Giving orders you know won't be obeyed is one of the best ways I know to destroy your own authority.

God didn't give us minds just so we could refuse to use them.

Spies could be invaluable in peacetime, once the fighting actually started, their value dropped steeply. When the swords were out, it was the information your own scouts provided that mattered, not reports from unknown people whose veracity you couldn't prove.

Politics ... was at least half a question of proper stage management. And the higher the stakes, the more critical that management became.

If justice must be dealt, then let it be dealt, but don't poison yourselves with vengeance.

No man or woman can truly choose to serve God unless they are equally free to refuse to serve Him, and God desires for His people to come to Him clear-eyed and joyously, not cringing in terror of the Inquisition and the damnation of Hell.

You can't kill ideas with a sword.

The truth had a nasty habit of biting people who refused to confront it.

I'm not so foolish as to think truth and justice must inevitably triumph simply because they deserve to, but liars ultimately destroy the things they lie to protect, and corruption, ambition, and betrayal inevitably betray themselves, as well.