6 days later

"These drops of rain were born of the heavens but died here on earth. Their lives spanned the entire duration it took for the raindrops to land. Hence, this showers that we’re looking at, isn’t heaven, neither is it earth, nor raindrops. We’re actually looking at the lives of raindrops! This… is life and death!"

Ultimate scheming system

11 days later

"The world is huge, yet nary a person understands me! There is actually no one whom can hear me lament! I can only talk to the wind, speak to the clouds and whisper to the flowers when I'm alone... maybe all that I can do is to bite my blanket hard in the dead of the night and let my tears flow unhindered... silently venting without anyone knowing..."

"Thank goodness! The heavens have given me someone whom can understand, accept and take pity on me! That is the man in front of me!" Yu BingYan (Legend of King Tian) (chap 101 on QI)

there is nothing eternal

u also can´t destroy the evil in the world 100% but merely delay it.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

OldTimeTea Reminded me of Madison's "If men were angels..."
Not my favorite saying, or the most "profound" I've seen, but I found this text very poetic and emotion-inducing (is that a word?):
"出征酒, 男儿的酒! 男儿征前饮一口!"
"出征酒, 生死的酒! 生生死死着一口!"
"出征酒, 无怨的酒! 战场搏杀没有仇!"
"出征酒, 托付的酒! 兄弟我家看白头!"
"出征酒, 父母的酒! 双亲高堂莫泪流!"
"出征酒, 妻的酒! 顾老看幼靠你手!"
"出征酒, 敌人的酒! 生死搏杀莫留手!"
"出征酒, 家国的酒! 卫我家国热血流!"
"出征酒, 男儿的酒! 将士爱喝这一口!" - (Realms of the Firminant)

      1.-White snow blankets the land as I travel alone through heaven and earth. Alone without any attachments, my solitary shadow travels freely."

      2."God has sprinkled intelligence over all of humankind… But only you were carrying an umbrella!"

      3.-"One can do whatever they want, but even the water from every river in the world isn’t enough to wash away the shame of a person’s heart."

      4.Those who consume water can swim and tolerate the cold, those who consume earth are heartless but wise, those who consume wood are strong and rough, those who consume grass are agile but unintelligent, those who consume meat are brave and tough, those who consume grains are brilliant but die, those who consume air are enlightened and lasting, those who don't consume are immortal and divine.

      I don't remember in which light novels I found them.

        These are from an online novel I particularly enjoy.
        You can find the rest on http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/APracticalGuideToEvil

        “Maybe I won’t go to Heaven but you’ve never owned a pit full of man-eating tapirs so who’s the real loser here?”
        —Dread Empress Atrocious, best known for comprehensive tax reform and having been eaten by man-eating tapirs. They were later executed by her successor for treason after a lengthy trial.
        “Morality is a force, not a law. Deviating from it has costs and benefits both – a ruler should weigh those when making a decision, and ignore the delusion of any position being inherently superior.”
        —
        “There’s no surer sign you’re being played than being certain you’ve grasped your opponent’s intent.”
        —
        “Please, do keep digging your own grave. I look forward to your splendidly inevitable demise.”
        —Dread Emperor Benevolent the First
        "Funny, isn’t it? No matter what language they speak, everyone sounds the same when you pull out their fingernails.”
        —Dread Emperor Foul III, “the Linguist”
        “See, this is exactly the kind of trouble I’d be avoiding by mind controlling the entire world. You fools are making my point for me, can’t you see?”
        —
        “I imagine the High Lords would be inclined to protest the mind control, if I hadn’t seized control of their minds, which just goes to show this was the right decision all along.”
        —Dread Emperor Imperious, shortly before being torn apart by an Ater mob
        “Hahahahaha. Ha. You can’t beat me now, this is the first part of my plan!”
        —
        “I can’t beat your band of heroes, true, but what if there were another eight bands also out for my blood? Ha! What are you going to do, form a line?”
        —
        “Ah, but being defeated was always part of my plan! Yet another glorious victory for the Empire.”
        —
        “Oh, I get it. The real treasure was the people I had executed along the way!”
        —
        “Ah, but every palace you destroy has to be rebuilt! You’ve single-handedly pulled the Empire out of a slump, hahaha. Once again sweet victory is mine.”
        —
        “Oh, woe is me, you’ve destroyed my army… Hahaha, you fell for it again! I haven’t paid them in a year, they were about to depose me. Once more, Irritant triumphs against all odds!”
        —Dread Emperor Irritant I, the Oddly Successful
        “Tyrants do not lose. We face temporary setbacks.”
        —Dread Empress Maledicta II
        “I see I’ll have to take drastic measures to ensure intelligent conversation around here.”
        —Dread Empress Maledicta II, before having the tongues of the entire Imperial court ripped out
        “Nothing is half as dangerous to a villain as victory. We raise our own gallows.”
        —
        “Maybe I’ll lose one day. But not today, and not to the likes of you.”
        —Dread Empress Maleficent the First
        “Any plan with more than four steps is not a plan, it is wishful thinking.”
        —
        “I never keep grudges. Not for long, anyway.”
        —
        "The closest equivalent I’ve found to the Imperial court is the act of shoving your hand in a bag that could be full of jewels but is, most of the time, full of razor blades.”
        —
        “The worst sin a villain can commit is to hesitate.”
        —
        “Sometimes you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, executing the hens who laid them on trumped up charges and setting the most rebellious henhouse on fire as an example to the others.”
        —
        “To bargain with devils is to paint with your own blood: the greater the work, the harsher the price.”
        —Dread Empress Maleficent II
        “The most important part of any summary execution is to remember to have fun and be yourself.”
        —
        “You’d be surprised at the breadth of things that can be powered by the souls of the innocent. Fortresses, swords, my favourite chandelier.”
        —
        “You have to enjoy life’s little pleasures, like lazy mornings and strawberries and invading Callow with an invisible army.”
        —Dread Empress Malevolent II
        “The best revenge isn’t living well, it’s living to crucify all your enemies.”
        —
        “Where have all the good men gone? Graveyards, mostly.”
        —Dread Emperor Malevolent III, the Pithy
        “Only heroes get to have the torch handed to them. Villains must take it from their predecessor’s corpse.”
        —
        “I trust people to act according to their nature. Anything more is sentimentality.”
        —
        “Power is mostly a matter of making the right corpses at the right time.”
        —Dread Empress Malicia the First, First of her Name
        “It is impossible for the Empire to make an appreciable gain so long as this gain is a loss to every other nation on Calernia. To remedy this, we must discard the traditional lines of allying only to Evil polities and make it so that it is in the interest of other powers for us to rise.”
        —Extract from ‘The Death of the Age of Wonders’, a treatise by Dread Empress Malicia
        "Note: only offer the hero the chance to replace my right-hand man when my right-hand man is no longer in the room. Additional note: find out estimated rebuilding cost for the summer palace.”
        —
        “Note: those meddling heroes keep surviving getting thrown off cliffs. Must build taller ones in anticipation of the next encounter.”
        —
        “Note: orc buoyancy is limited. Avoid fighting the damnable rebels near shoddily-built dams in the future.”
        —
        “Home is wherever you can order someone drowned and not get any odd looks.”
        —
        “Look, if he didn’t want to be fed to my acid-spewing crocodiles he shouldn’t have brought me bad news.”
        —
        —Dread Emperor Malignant II, the Particularly Petty
        “You can never have too many tiger pits, Chancellor. That’s the same lack of vision that has people say “that’s too large a field of energy to absorb” or “calling yourself a living god is blasphemy”.”
        —Dread Emperor Malignant III, before his death and second reign as Dread Emperor Revenant
        “Of course I don’t step on people’s throats using my own heels. Have you seen how gorgeous these boots are? I’m not getting blood on these beauties: it takes at least two princes to get the right amount of skin, and duke leather just isn’t the same.”
        —Dread Emperor Nihilis I, the Tanner
        “If I had an aurelius for every assassination attempt, I wouldn’t have to keep raising taxes.”
        —Dread Emperor Pernicious, the Imperiled
        “That’s the thing with invincibility. You have it until you don’t.”
        —Dread Empress Prudence the First, the ‘Frequently Vanquished’
        “There’s a natural hierarchy to the world, Chancellor: there’s me, then my boot, then all of Creation under the boot.”
        —
        “A villain should make plans with the understanding that everything you can conceive of going wrong will, and then a few others things too.”
        —''Dread Empress Regalia
        “Gaining power’s a lot like scaling a tower, Chancellor. The longer you do, the more likely you are to fall.”
        —Dread Empress Regalia the First, before ordering her Chancellor thrown out the window
        “Your mistake, Queen of Blades, is in thinking that virtue is the province of Good. Every Tyrant who has ever claimed the Tower, every fool and every madman, had the seed of greatness in them. Courage, cleverness, ambition, will. We may lose our way, we may lose ourselves, but every time we get… a little closer. You think I am afraid of death? I am a droplet in the tide that will drown Creation. I take pride in this, even in my hour of failure. Empresses rise, Empresses fall. But the Tower?
        Oh, the Tower endures.”
        —Last words of Dread Empress Regalia the First
        “They call Ater the City of Gates and then forget to mention how often those are shut on people’s fingers.”
        —
        “Oh, on most days we lose. But once in a while, just once, it works. And those moments of perfect clarity where all the world is in the palm of your hand, a hundred thousand middling minds made into flawless assembly by your will? Those are worth all the rest.”
        —
        “The only thing more dangerous than being hated by a villain is to be loved by them.”
        —
        "Here is the truth of our dreadful crown: to claim it a declaration of war on banality, on mediocrity. The banner of the enemy is apathy, the slow grind of the inevitable. Victor or ruin, every Tyrant that ever lived bet their madness against the bridle of the Heavens.”
        —
        “No man in Creation is so dangerous as a well-meaning fool.”
        —Dread Empress Regalia II
        “Mark my words, the Imperial banner will be flying above Summerholm by midsummer.”
        —Dread Empress Regalia II, shortly before initiating the Sixty Years War
        "Who should really be afraid, between the dragon and the peasant with a sword?"
        —Dread Emperor Reprobate the First
        “My dear Chancellor, I didn’t murder my entire family and use their blood to turn myself into an undead abomination to be told I couldn’t do things.”
        —Dread Emperor Revenant
        “The source of wonder and horror is the same, and the boundary between them thinner than you would think.”
        —
        “It probably doesn’t count as cannibalism if you’re already dead.”
        —Dread Empress Sanguinia I, the Gourmet
        “This eye for an eye business is horridly proportional. I assure you, if I’m losing an eye then so is everyone else.”
        —
        “Ah, mortal wounds. My only weakness.”
        —
        “I’ll be honest, Chancellor – revenge is the motivation for over half the decrees I’ve made.”
        —Dread Empress Sanguinia II, best known for outlawing cats and being taller than her
        “Invading? Good Gods, of course not. We’re merely manoeuvring.”
        —Dread Empress Sinistra II “the Coy”, after being hailed by the garrison of Summerholm
        “Of course not, did you see the height of that drop? That is the last we’ve seen of the Shining Prince, I assure you.”
        —'''Dread Empress Sinistra IV, the Erroneous
        “Now kneel, fools, and witness my ascension to GODHOOD!”
        —Last words of Dread Empress Sinistra IV, the Erroneous
        “There’s only a thousand of them, I don’t care if they’re on a hill. This will be over by midday, Black Knight, mark my words.”
        —Dread Empress Sulphurous, the Technically Correct
        “The classic Callowan blunder. Sending an army into the Wasteland you can’t handle if it comes marching back as undead.”
        —
        “Three can keep a secret, if two are dead. Unless you’re a necromancer, anyway, then the world is your blasphemous undead oyster.”
        —
        “The essence of sorcery is blasphemy. Through will and power, every mage usurps dominion over the laws of Creation from the gods Above and Below.”
        —
        “I was once told that character is what you are in the dark. I found, my dear Chancellor, that I was the dark.”
        —Dread Emperor Sorcerous
        “Taxes. Taxes and triplicate forms.”
        —Dread Emperor Terribilis I, upon being asked what powerful sorceries he would use to humble the High Lords
        “The best defence is to have killed all your enemies.”
        —Dread Emperor Terribilis I, the Thorough
        “It is a shallow soul who fights to the cry of ‘might makes right’. The truth is more concise: might makes.”
        —
        “Doubt is the mother of failure.”
        —Dread Emperor Terribilis I, the Lawgiver
        “Only if it’s ‘being executed’.”
        —Dread Emperor Terribilis I, upon being asked for a last request by a hero
        “Do not make laws you do not intend to enforce. Allowing one law to be broken with impunity undermines them all.”
        —
        “Did you really think I wouldn’t cheat just because I was already winning?”
        —
        “Trust is the victory of sentiment over reason.”
        —
        “Always mistrust these three: a battle that seems won, a chancellor who smiles and a ruler calling you friend.”
        —
        “Threats are useless unless you have previously committed the level of violence your are threatening to use. Make examples of the enemies you cannot control so those that you can will be cowed. This is the foundation of ruling.”
        —
        “Mercy might be the mark of a great man, but then so’s a tombstone.”
        —
        “Never wound a man you do not intend to kill.”
        —Dread Emperor Terribilis II
        “Ha! And I bet you didn’t even see it coming!”
        —
        “Treason is more art than act.”
        —
        “I’ve been told one can only be betrayed by a friend, which is why I constantly surround myself with enemies.”
        —
        "I’ve yet to encounter a situation that couldn’t be improved by a copious amount of lies and body doubles.”
        —
        “There’s nothing better in life than the look on your enemy’s face when they realize you’ve played them every step of the way. Why do you think I keep starting secret cabals trying to overthrow me?”
        —Dread Emperor Traitorous;
        “Gentlemen, there is no need to worry: our plan is flawless. The Emperor will never see it coming.”
        —Grandmaster Ouroboros of the Order of Unholy Obsidian, later revealed to have been Dread Emperor Traitorous all along
        “My dear friends, I have a confession to make. Some creative reframing of the truth may have taken place during the planning of this coup.”
        —Dread Emperor Traitorous, addressing the Order of the Unholy Obsidian upon successfully usurping the throne from himself
        "If Creation is not mine, what need is there to be a Creation at all?”
        —
        “All lessons worth learning are drenched in blood.”
        —Dread Empress Triumphantnote , First and Only of Her Name
        “Don’t think of it so much as a fall, but rather as an opportunity to learn how to fly.”
        —Dread Emperor Venal, in the act of succeeding his predecessor
        “Those who live by the sword kill those who don’t.”
        —Dread Emperor Vile the First
        “Before embarking on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. One for the fool and one for all those pesky relatives.”
        —
        “And on your grave we shall have inscribed: he was witty all the way into the tiger pit.”
        —Dread Emperor Vindictive the First
        “I’ve found that the best way to win at shatranj is usually to turn into a giant snake and tear my opponent’s throat out.”

        “I was pure in the past! I believed that the sky would forever be blue! I believed the dark clouds would only last a moment! But the truth is, the blue in the sky is also a form of oppression”
        -pursuit of the truth

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