True courtesy,” he continued, “earns the name. It is courtesy that is truthful. When the plebeian kneels to the monarch, he is offering his neck. He offers it because he knows his ruler can take it if he wishes. Common people like that say-or rather, they used to say, in older and better times – that I have no love of truth. But the truth is that it is precisely truth that I love, an open acknowledgment of fact.
-Gene Wolfe
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