Quotes from book
Lord Valentine's Castle

Lord Valentine's Castle
Robert Silverberg

Set in an immense world teeming with alien races and fantastic, almost magical, machinery, Valentine, an itinerant juggler, wakes up one morning with only a vague and troubled idea of who he is. He gradually discovers, through dreams and portents, that he is in fact his namesake: Lord Valentine, the Coronal, his body and throne stolen by a usurper. Across the giant world of Majipoor, Valentine sets out on a quest to win back his throne - and discover which of his enemies has the power to vanquish him so utterly from not just his throne, but his very life . . . (First published 1980)

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“They were apt to be disappointed with the way he fulfilled his promises to them, for he intended, if he could, to sweep both the bickering rivals from power. But he did not ask pure and total saintliness of himself in his dealings with those whose chief role in the government appeared to be to impede and obstruct.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 4 “The Book of the Labyrinth”, Chapter 7 (p. 383)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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““Come,” Deliamber said. “There is a vast journey ahead of us.”
“I know. That’s why I don’t want to get up.””

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 3 “The Book of the Isle of Sleep”, Chapter 2 (p. 231)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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““You speak very generally,” Valentine said.
“I am an oracle, and oracles are never terribly specific,” she replied lightly.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 1, Chapter 12 (p. 93)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“The Barjazid does not yet rule as an absolute tyrant, for that might turn the people against him, and he is still insecure in his power—while you live. But he rules for himself and for his family, not for Majipoor. He lacks a sense of right, and does only what seems useful and expedient. As his confidence grows, so too will his crimes, until Majipoor groans under the whip of a monster.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 3, Chapter 11 (p. 329)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“But why?” he asked Deliamber.
The Vroon replied, “Why? is a useless question in matters of spiritual progress.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 3, Chapter 8 (p. 301)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“We are not accustomed to threats here,” Lorivade declared.
“I make no threat. I speak only of inevitable consequences.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 3, Chapter 10 (p. 317)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“Am I loyal, or am I loyal? But I don’t like the way things are going. It’s a citizen’s right to worry about the state of the realm, isn’t it? If matters are not to our liking, we should speak up. That’s our tradition, isn’t it? If we allow small abuses now, who knows what sort of things he’ll be doing five years on!”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 1 “The Book of the King of Dreams”, Chapter 8 (p. 48)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“How frail, he thought, is the compact that holds our government together! Good will alone is all that sustains it.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 5, Chapter 6 (p. 442)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“What matters,” he said earnestly, “is the display of skill, not the manners of the audience.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 1, Chapter 10 (p. 71)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“Deliamber shrugged. “Such things are never fairly distributed. What makes you think that only the guilty are punished?”
“The Divine—”
“Why do you think the Divine is fair? In the long run, all wrongs are righted, every minus is balanced with a plus, the columns are totaled and the totals are found correct. But that’s in the long run. We must live in the short run, and matters are often unjust there. The compensating forces of the universe make all the accounts come out even, but they grind down the good as well as the wicked in the process.””

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 5 “The Book of the Castle”, Chapter 4 (pp. 424-425)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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“I think power is a sickness and governing is a folly for madmen.”

Robert Silverberg book Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 1, Chapter 15 (p. 113)
Lord Valentine's Castle (1980)

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