Life...books

She looked at him.'These last few months - almost a year now - I have learned that there is life outside books.'
'All life is outside books.'
'Spoken like a true scholar!'
'Life enters books. It isn't the other way round.' (pag. 454)

(Sofia Sartor&Ezio Auditore)


(Oliver Bowden - " Assasin's Creed - Revelations")

Keeping the balance...

"Mark this and remember. It is never your choice to give up the fight for justice. Even when it seems that it can never be won, that all hope is lost, the fight, the fight ensures the survival of justice, the survival of the world. You live balanced on the edge of a cliff, you cannot help that. Your job is to ensure that the balance never tips too far to the wrong side. And there is one more thing you can do which will make certain that it never does: you can love." (pag. 446)

(Tinia)

(Oliver Bowden - " Assasin's Creed - Revelations")

Truth

'That is just further evidence of his decline!To take up arms against his own son? It's shameful.'
'Do not bend the truth to match the contours of your passion, efendim,'the fourth man rebuked him.'It was Selim, after all, who attacked our Sultan first.' (pag. 286-287)

(Talk among Janissaries)

(Oliver Bowden - " Assasin's Creed - Revelations")

Pieces of genius (14)

”Nu era azi, nici mâine, nici ieri, nici todeauna,
Căci unul erau toate si totul era una.”

(Mihai Eminescu - ”Rugăciunea unui dac”)

Dacă iubești fără să speri

Mihai Eminescu

Dacă iubești fără să speri

De-ai fi iubit vreodată,

Se-ntunecă de lungi păreri

De rău viața toată.

Și-ți lasă-n suflet un amar

Și în gândiri asemeni,

Căci o iubire în zadar

Cu moartea-i sor' de gemeni.

Dar vindecarea la dureri

În piept, în partea stângă-i,

De-acolo trebuie să ceri

Cuvinte să te mângăi.

Acolo afli adăpost

Oricâte se întâmple.

Că și-un amor care-ar fi fost,

Viața ta o împle.

Căci un luceafăr răsărit

Din liniștea uitării

Dă orizon nemărginit

Singurătății mării.

Și ochiul tău întunecat

Atunci îl împle plânsul,

Iar ale vieții valuri bat

Călătorind spre dânsul.

Și dau cadențe de nespus

Durerii tale lunge

Pe când luceafărul e sus

Ca să nu-l poți ajunge.

Zâmbește trist cu raze reci

Speranțelor deșarte;

În veci iubi-o-vei, în veci,

Va rămânea departe

Și-a tale zile-or fi cum sunt

Pustii ca niște stepe;

Iar nopțile de-un farmec sfânt

Ce nu-l mai poți pricepe.

Final battle...

Both men were tiring, and confronted each other panting.
Ezio replied,'Your new regime will bring tyranny and misery to all.'
'I know what is best for the people of Italy, not a bunch of old men who wasted their energy fighting to get to the top years ago.'
'Your mistakes are worse than theirs.'
'I do not make mistakes. I am the Enlightened One!'
'Enlightenment comes through years of thought , not through blind conviction.'
(...)
'The throne was mine!' he said, like a child who has lost a toy.
'Wanting something does not give you the right to have it.' (pag. 520-521)

(Ezio Auditore&Cesare Borgia)

(Oliver Bowden - " Assasin's Creed - Renaissance")

Sonnet

How every hope of ours raised in vain,

How spoiled the plans we laid so well,

How ignorance throughout the earth doth reign,

Death, who is mistress of us all, can tell.

In song and dance and jousts some pass their days,

Some vow their talents unto gentle arts,

Some hold the world in scorn and all its ways,

Some hide the impulses that move their hearts.

Vain thoughts and wishes, cares of every kind

Greatly upon this erring earth prevail

In various presence after nature's lore;

Fortune doth fashion with inconstant mind,

All things are transient here below and frail,

Death only standeth fast for evermore. (Lorenzo - pag. 463)

(Oliver Bowden - " Assasin's Creed - Renaissance")