Empire Quotes

“Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“How then can the US society come to terms with its past? How can it acknowledge responsibility? The late Native historian Jack Forbes always stressed that while living persons are not responsible for what their ancestors did, they are responsible for the society they live in, which is a product of that past. Assuming this responsibility provides a means of survival and liberation. Everyone and everything in the world is affected, for the most part negatively, by US dominance and intervention, often violently through direct military means or through proxies.”
― Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

“When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall.”
― Alexander Hamilton

“You don't need to work hard to earn an empire; there is an army of slaves to do it for you.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire [95].”
― Zbigniew Brzeziński, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power

“When you fear nothing, you have nothing to fear”
― S.F. Chandler, We the Great Are Misthought

“Government as we now know it in the USA and other economically advanced countries is so manifestly horrifying, so corrupt, counterproductive, and outright vicious, that one might well wonder how it continues to enjoy so much popular legitimacy and to be perceived so widely as not only tolerable but indispensable. The answer, in overwhelming part, may be reduced to a two-part formula: bribes and bamboozlement (classically "bread and circuses"). Under the former rubric falls the vast array of government "benefits" and goodies of all sorts, from corporate subsidies and privileges to professional grants and contracts to welfare payments and health care for low-income people and other members of the lumpenproletariat. Under the latter rubric fall such measures as the government schools, the government's lapdog news media, and the government's collaboration with the producers of professional sporting events and Hollywood films. Seen as a semi-integrated whole, these measures give current governments a strong hold on the public's allegiance and instill in the masses and the elites alike a deep fear of anything that seriously threatens the status quo.”
― Robert Higgs

“Any government that places profit before people is pure evil.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Some women born to raise a beautiful families while some women are born to build an empire from ashes and rule the rest.”
― Pradeepa Pandiyan

“We are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longs to blot them out, gobble them up.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

“Because the Empire controls the media, we can turn any news to the Emperor's advantage.”
― Daniel Wallace, Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide

“Don’t touch me. Don’t tell me how beautiful my eyes are, how
soft my hair is, how you love to hear my voice. Don’t. Don’t pretend
you are falling in love with me. I know you are lying, and every
word you say hurts even more. Let us just be friends, if we can start
there. Can’t we? Can’t we at least be friends? Get to know each
other a little? Before the wedding, and the bedding, when I will
have to take you as my lord and husband?”
― melissa de la cruz, The Ring and the Crown

“Salt and citrus,” Cairdine Farrier said, joining her at the stern with a lemon in each hand. “The chemicals of empire.”
“Salt to preserve food for long journeys,” Baru recited. “Citrus for scurvy.”
― Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant

“The era of manufacturing consent has given way to the era of manufacturing news. Soon media newsrooms will drop the pretence, and start hiring theatre directors instead of journalists.”
― Arundhati Roy

“The necessity, then, of those “lesser breeds without the law”—those wogs, barbarians, niggers—is this: one must not become more free, not become more base than they: must not be used as they are used, nor yet use them as their abandonment allows one to use them: therefore, they must be civilized. But, when they are civilized, they may simply “spuriously imitate [the civilizer] back again,” leaving the civilizer with no satisfaction on which to rest.”
― James Baldwin, The Devil Finds Work: Essays

“This is my empire, Uriang-Khadai. I will not be made to leave. Ready the tumans for battle, Orlok. I will face my enemies and I will destroy them.”
― Conn Iggulden, Conqueror

“So he’d done more of the same. He’d drunk to forget. He’d brawled to let off steam. He’d taken the dangerous jobs to fund his lifestyle – and then began it all again. He wasn’t some chivalrous nomad, skulking from planet to planet doing good deeds and leaving when things got too hot. No, left when the bar-owner’s daughter suddenly wanted to marry him. Kanan didn’t leave because the Empire moved in: He’d stared down Imperials like Vidian before and lived. They knew he was something to ignore. No, he left because where the Empire went, fun usually died.”
― John Jackson Miller, A New Dawn

“Esta es una revolución que ningún poder logrará controlar porque biopoder y comunismo, cooperación y revolución, permanecen juntos, en amor, simplicidad y también inocencia. Esta es la irreprimible alegría y gozo de ser comunistas.”
― Antonio Negri; Michael Hardt

“If the teachings of the early Christians changed Rome and the entire Roman Empire, we can’t point to any great change that the teachings coming from our pulpits today are producing upon our world in general”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Mapidéré was but one man-and indeed, judging by rumors of his decrepit state near death, a weak, sickly man-but his creation, the empire, had taken on a life of its own. Killing the emperor would not have been enough. We have to kill the empire.”
― Ken Liu, The Grace of Kings

“А потом наступила Римская империя. Войны, кризисы, убийства и безнадежие — Август, Тиберий, Нерон, Христос и христианство, — город стал римской колонией. Теперь из его бухт отходили транспорты с зерном (став Великими, империи почему-то всегда начинают голодать), и навстречу им шли суда с бронзой, мрамором, статуями императоров, льняными и шелковыми тканями, порченой монетой, которую в ту пору таскали за собой мешками. Потом империя затрещала по всем швам — она ведь из Великой сделалась Всемирной, — кого-то убивали, что-то жгли, кому-то что-то доказывали и, конечно, ничего доказать не могли. А певцы и поэты творили, а императоры воевали, а юристы кодифицировали, а философы подводили подо все базу — город же прижался к земле и ждал, ждал, ждал, чем же все это кончится? Э! Да ничегошеньки он не ждал, он просто жил, как тысячу лет до этого, и все! Ловил и солил рыбу, сеял хлеб, давил вино, справлял свадьбы и ни о чем больше не думал.”
― Ю. Домбровский

“The mind is an empire unto itself.”
― Steven Redhead, Life Is Simply A Game

“It is not in the entrails of doves that the fall of empires can be read, but in the breeding of secrets and the multiplication of lies.”
― Rod Duncan, Unseemly Science

“- ما يتجلى هنا ليس منطقا جديدا بل سيناريو جديد لأفعال عقلانية مختلفة، أفق نشاطات ومقاومات وإرادات ورغبات ترفض نظام الهيمنة، وتقترح مخارج هروب، وتجترح مسارات تأسيس بديلة. وهذا الأساس الحقيقي القابل للنقد يمثل المرجع الوجودي الحقيقي للفلسفة، أو الحقل المناسب حقا لإحدى فلسفات التحرير. ولا يلبث هذا الموقف أن يقطع صلته منهجيا مع كل فلسفة للتاريخ بمقدار ما يرفض أي فهم حتموي جبري لتطور التاريخ وأي احتفال "عقلاني" بالنتيجة. إنه يبين ،على النقيض من ذلك، كيف يكون الحدث التاريخي كامنا في الإحتمال...
- ليست الفلسفة بومة منيرفا التي تحلق بعد تحقق التاريخ احتفالا بنهايته السعيدة، بل تبقى الفلسفة،بالأحرى، طرحا ذاتيا، رغبة، ونظرية مستمدة من الممارسة العملية ويجري تطبيقها على الحدث”
― Antonio Negri, Empire

“В российских условиях время расцвета постимперского синдрома, замешанного на нем радикального национализма, вопреки ожиданиям автора этих строк, пришлось не на период, непосредственно последовавший за крушением СССР, а на более позднее время. Я и мои коллеги, начинавшие реформы в России, понимали, что переход к рынку, адаптация России к новому положению в мире, существованию новых независимых государств будут проходить непросто. Но мы полагали, что преодоление трансформационной рецессии, начало экономического роста, повышение реальных доходов населения позволят заменить несбыточные мечты о восстановлении империи прозаичными заботами о собственном благосостоянии. Мы ошибались.

Как показал опыт, во время глубокого экономического кризиса, когда неясно, хватит ли денег, чтобы прокормить семью до следующей зарплаты, выплатят лн ее вообще, не окажешься ли завтра без работы, большинству людей не до имперского величия. Напротив, в то время, когда благосостояние начинает расти, появляется уверенность, что в этом году зарплата будет выше, чем в предыдущем, безработица, если не живешь в депрессивном регионе, тебя не коснется, жизнь изменилась, но вновь обрела черты стабильности, можно, придя домой, сесть и посмотреть вместе с семьей советский фильм, в котором наши разведчики лучше их шпионов, мы всегда побеждаем, а жизнь, изображенная на экране, безоблачна, порассуждать о том, как враги развалили великую державу, как мы всем еще покажем, кто главный [16].”
― Егор Гайдар, Гибель империи: Уроки для современной России

“L’impératrice Tarunesh inclina son visage généreux aux traits réguliers à son adresse, bien que le jeune Sorcelier ne puisse affirmer si c’était en signe de remerciement ou une simple notification de sa remarque. Le Dejazmach Elias sembla vouloir en tirer parti :
- Voyez, Ô Reine des Rois, une bête fauve et quoi d’autre par-dessus le marché ! Permettez-moi de risquer ma vie plutôt que d’exposer votre auguste personne inutilement…
Il y eut des murmures d’approbation mais Célian nota que Nyssa, qui à son grand plaisir le rejoignait, ne partageait visiblement pas l’avis d’Elias.
- Votre inquiétude n’est pas de mise, Dejazmach, s’exclama Tarunesh avec une douceur voilée, ses yeux brillants emplis d’assurance. Le jour où une bête des herbes grasses aura ma vie, je ne serai effectivement plus digne de régner ! Assez perdu de temps.
Selamawit, Mengistu, escortez notre Nigiste Negest ! commanda le Dejazmach Elias en se redressant vivement, se tournant vers les guerriers et la foule assemblés derrière lui.”
― Cyrille Mendes, Les Épieurs d'Ombre

“Life as a private investigator, slash bounty hunter wasn’t all Gary Beck wanted it to be. There weren’t any big mansions on a palm beach owned by an affluent writer generous enough to let him live rent-free and use his spare Ferrari. But then you have to ask yourself, what could you expect living on a planet like Deanna? As a third-rate colony in the Terran Empire, Deanna had more than its fair share of dull moments. It orbits a star called Ramalama. If you think that’s funny, Deanna’s two moons are called Ding and Dong, respectively (this is a local joke) and one of them falls down occasionally.”
― Christina Engela, Black Sunrise

“On any given day, Ossifar Distana carried around 5000 passengers, the actual figure varying slightly depending on where she was on the vast elliptical cruise that took her around the Terran Empire. When she entered the system she carried 4984 passengers, 500 crew, one dead body and one very puzzled Captain.”
― Christina Engela, Dead Man's Hammer

“Sumone Yiden Smiff was a businessman of note. Was, past tense. Through years of sweat and swearing and amazingly smart (or lucky) deals he’d built up a mining empire that spanned the sum of known space. At 74 years, he had reached the apex of a career stretching half a century. His companies mined precious commodities like Impervium, Obstinatium and Bitanium. He wasn’t really famous, or ostentatious. In fact he only ever made the cover of Fortune One Billion once, twenty-five years ago. He’d never married, had lots of children – light-years apart, apparently.”
― Christina Engela, Dead Man's Hammer

“Meradinis! Turtle Island! It was a little corner of chaos!
This was the scene the speeding black ship had left behind three days ago, fleeing in humiliating shame, those three days a constant running battle. For three days the accursed Imperial ship Indomitable had followed, firing on them at every opportunity. Death or imprisonment now awaited those who called themselves Corsairs – and though this death was now more certain rather than just a possibility, Sona Kilroy, or “The Hammer” as he was called by his men, was not prepared to give up his freedom so easily. Piracy was his life and he’d known no other. He was tough and cruel, a despicable man, a case in point when academics quoted the barbarism by which the Corsairs had made themselves known and feared across the star systems of the peaceful Terran Empire.”
― Christina Engela, Dead Beckoning