The underbreath of our every prayer should be, “Father, not my will, but thine be done”

This was a factor in one of the major long-term weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire, namely the relatively small size of its Turkish population, which limited its ability to colonize conquered regions. … In no meaningful sense was Anatolia the empire's metropolis. This might seem strange to Europeans, who are and always were much inclined to use the words Ottoman and Turkish interchangeably when describing the empire.

And his final act—leaving the Watch to accompany Tormund and the Wildlings back into the woods North of the wall—no longer seems like a dereliction of duty. It’s the recovery of duty, found by a man who feels he betrayed his queen, who thinks there’s no longer a place for him in these lands.

This is so because efforts, exertions, and endeavorings, if they were to exist, would need to be actions themselves, or parts of actions, or subactions or behaviors of some sort […]