Quotes of People in Your Nation Mk. V

[Augustine Rome]

"Discovering gunpowder in 12 AD would not have changed much. We invented things all the time and immediately lost interest in anything that looked like a parlor trick." - a rather cynical Roman book critic.

[Californiae]

"The Sovereignty of the Federated States of California is not a matter up for the debate of foreign lordship, international institutions or scheming supranational unions. We are each of us, Californians and we will be Californians tomorrow and the next day and the next, until the end of time itself." - frmr President Averill Green, 1936

[Senyosu]

I consider emotions and critical thought as extensions and equivalent of 'DLCs' or Downloadable Content for the video game and technologically illiterate--you know who you are--to the current base of the human mind's functions. Add ons, essentially. Ok. A dog barking loudly frightens you. The immediate, old brain response is fight, flight, or freeze up. The new brain, the downloadable content, extends or overrides our old brain functions in favor of a more logical or drastic approach.

Except no.

Like.

No.

It doesn't work that way. The DLC bit. Like, no.

And what are you saying, I'm not a nerd, pfft.

-Hyatōri Misamunē-

[Estainia]

"The slipstream drive is just frankly prettier than the warp drive and I don't have to build my ships to look like flying saucers out of an Californian science-fiction movie."

"It's also about a century old and almost obsolete."

"Upgrades are constantly being applied to the tech, we can keep up easily."

"If you say so." - a pair of engineers arguing, 2156

[Las Palmeras]

"The slipstream drive is just frankly prettier than the warp drive and I don't have to build my ships to look like flying saucers out of an Californian science-fiction movie."

"It's also about a century old and almost obsolete."

"Upgrades are constantly being applied to the tech, we can keep up easily."

"If you say so." - a pair of engineers arguing, 2156

"Ah, California. Temporary (Adopted) Home of George Adamski. Photographer of flying saucers that suspiciously resemble chicken coops."
-No Name reminiscing

[Felucian Planetary Republic]

"You're Fired!"
- Vincent Kennedy McMahon

[Lumeau]

"Nothing is more sacrosanct in Lumeau than the happiness of the individual. We in government have an active duty to ensure our people our happy in their personal lives. Other nations tout collective glory through the enforcement of so-called morals, nationalistic expansionism, or putting money before humanity. Here in Lumeau, our primary function is to protect the people from forces against which they would otherwise be powerless, including ourselves. We do this by elevating the happiness, liberty, and inviolable worth of all our citizens above every other policy objective. Our years on this world will always be limited, and the last thing we want is for the people to be trapped in the important facets of their lives. Not one shall be a slave to money, an anachronistic moral code, or to any of their peers. You are more than the state will ever be."

--Felix MacMartin, the first Executive-General, on the role of government

[Allancia]

"Then transformation of government is ephemeral at best. Dictatorships transform into democracies, and democracies back into dictatorships."

-Allancian proverb, commonly attributed to Malthuin, an Allancian senator from the Republic of Allancia era (he would have been shocked if he had realized how accurate this statement is in modern Allancia)

[Auzkhia]

"Auzkhia is always a monarchy, but some changes did happen. Absolute monarchy was ended in 1867, but in the 1930's and 1940's there was a dictatorship ran by the chancellor and his party."
-Keine Name

[Skappola]

"Their Capital was paradisaical, but their festivals were precipitous and altogether reprehensible. Their homeless were despondent, forced to their predicament by the sanguinary machinations of the bourgeois upper class. It seemed as though the entire nation abhorred them, believing them to be no more than tawdry rubbish. Philistines, they called them. Otherwise, the whole nation seemed quite nondescript."
- Communist with an SAT word list

[Allancia]

"Their Capital was paradisaical, but their festivals were precipitous and altogether reprehensible. Their homeless were despondent, forced to their predicament by the sanguinary machinations of the bourgeois upper class. It seemed as though the entire nation abhorred them, believing them to be no more than tawdry rubbish. Philistines, they called them. Otherwise, the whole nation seemed quite nondescript."
- Communist with an SAT word list

"[sarcasm]I quite avidly agree with you. My comprehension of the words you used was quite astute. We should all study your words fastidiously to enlighten our cerebral vocabularial coffers[/sarcasm]."

-Neumond Wernicke
Reichskaiser
Talking to a bureaucrat during lunch break (the latter was an intern who was studying for an English test with a dictionary. Neumond decided to help with his studying, albeit in a humorous manner)

[Bereia]

"It takes a considerable strength to be proud of one's achievements in life, and yet still humble and respectful to one's fellows."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

[Sternberg]

"Mr Bowles, I believe the old adage "If it isn't broken or breaking, don't fix it" would be the most straight-forward answer to that question."

- Her Imperial Highness Joan I, responding to a question from the press about 'whether the Royal Imperium of Sternberg should consider a referendum about transforming its government from a constitutional monarchy to a republican government'.

[Avaerilon]

"To all things comes an end; we are no more than characters in a story, our very lived ended by a turn of the page."- Anonymous, prelude to Mylton's Paledron, 1421 BC.

[Bereia]

"My four basic default moods are as follows...

1) I'm too old for this shit

2) I'm too tired for this shit

3) I'm too sober for this shit

4) I don't have time for this shit

And the bonus, for special occasions...

5) I ain't havin' this shit!"

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen, describing her default reactions to the world.

[Russkaya Imperiya]

"I have always thought how odd it is that the second and third Rome both get along so well despite them both claiming the same throne."
-Radoslav Matveev

[Ardavia]

"The Leaves of Grass. A walking hunk of kevlar, metal plates, ceramic plates, servos, and a gigantic blade rising from the torso. Their attacks are only sheer decapitation of the enemy, and self-detonation.

The best part about them? They are extremely easy to make, extremely fast to produce, and extremely efficient in killing.

They are, to a Frenkish, Ardavian, or Mechanocratic soldier armed with only a knife, or even a high-veolicty rifle for God's sake, their worst nightmare. Not even counting the explosion they can produce."

---

Dr. Aluino Armendarez, the Nexus's top weapon and military designer

"The standard-issue 19mm Bolt Shell. A Bolter spits this beauty out at a rate of 400 per minute from 25 round magazines. Each of them is an armour-piercing explosive shell literally designed to dig into armour and explode. This thing can cause serious internal damage, whether synthetic or organic, to any target. It's standard issue for Shock Marines, and you do not want to be a soldier on a battlefield hearing these from the opposing side, which is why every bolter we make has a mechanism to melt down its internals and a gene-lock on it."

"Consider this for a moment. A Shock Marine is eight feet of bio-modified superhuman, weighing roughly 320kg, in 180kg armour. Now imagine a hundred of them, crashing onto your positions from above and literally squashing your comrades with half a tonne of weight, while another fifty are advancing on the ground, ignoring your small arms fire as it ricochets off their armour, firing salvo after salvo of exploding bolts at your positions. Do you want to be in that situation? Neither did many of our enemies."

~Two Instructors for the Guard Legions, lecturing

[Fatatatutti]

"When you hear the alarm bell, grab something. The 'Fish puts her bows under really fast and you'll be smashed against the bulkhead unless you're anchored."
-- Lieutenant Anni-Frid Ulvaeus, CO submarine Goldfish, to a new midshipman (the Goldfish being notorious for going in harm's way where crash dives are frequent)

[Bereia]

"Back in World War Two when a submarine had to dive suddenly, a lot of times anybody not needed at his usual station would be ordered to run to the front end of the boat. The boats were still light enough and small enough that having those men all pack themselves into the bow could make a difference in dive speed, which could mean the line between survival and sinking."

-- Admiral Peter Sutton, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, U.S.N.

[Saurisisia]

"No matter what government Saurisia may steer towards in the future, there will always be a yearning for a return to the Republic."
~ Cera Gadalfi, Chairsaur of the Saurisian Constitutional Party

[Estainia]

Not that California, Las.

---

"It's a horrible feeling knowing that somewhere in the world there's something praying to whatever God they believe in for us to come and save them." - Sir Victor Wallace, 1990, the Empire would become increasingly involved in the Asrani Civil War starting in 1991

Before anyone jumps up on the pedestal, the Empire is not on earth, when the oppressed peoples of Rostil call out for help they really are waiting for the Imperials because frankly we're the only ones who care about what happens to them.

[Rothuria]

Petr: You're so spoiled! You whine and kick and scream until get your way! You know what you remind me of?
Lizbeth: An Atheist?
Petr: Ye...uh, no. I was actually going to say a child.

Snippet of a domestic dispute on a Rothic sitcom.

[Auzkhia]

"Not all empires are evil."
-Lord Boris Hugo von Bach

[Las Palmeras]

"The backpack has RPLP in the center and it has the flag. Maybe bringing a World Cup backpack assures me as a local admirer; or it could make me appear more foreign. I aspire for the second one.
...
I can't hug or kiss my way out of this. Though, it's kind of weird that family members don't embrace that much and that strangers can't be greeted with kisses when presented. The rules that mom presented are a lot, but if I imitate everybody, it might work out."
-Celeste Zorilla, on her way to meet her maternal family (2037)

---

[Saurisisia]

"Beware not just any one singular leader but also the legislation; for they are just as likely as the single leader to let power go to their heads and begin thinking they can dictate to everyone else how they think they should regard their ordinary days."
~ Marco Giraldi, one of the key founders of the Saurisian National Alliance