There’s a dignity in consequences.

A few generations living and dying without a sky, and enclosed spaces lost the atavistic terror of premature burial.

No one lived forever. But you fought for every minute you could get. Bought a little more with a lot of hard work.

The usual state of nature is recovering from the last disaster.

The moral high ground is a lovely place. It won’t stop a missile, though. It won’t alter the trajectory of a gauss round.

Or was that fatalism another good move in design space? Did the universe evolve eyes and wings and sense organs and bitter amusement at the prospect of death all the same way?

Dead’s not good, but at least it’s simple.

Fayez whistled low. “That is not dead which can eternal lie. Or, y’know, whatever.

I’m a long-flight pilot. Pushing a little bubble of air-filled metal across an ocean of nothing is what I was born to do.

You want a shadow, you got to have light and something to get in its way.

You can order the sun to come up if you time it right. I’m not driving this bus. Making it do what I want would be like talking someone out of a seizure.

Your beauty took my breath away, but your mind has stopped my heart.

Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.

Rise like the hero you were born to be, or die the slave you think you are.

The best armor against everything around you is to be well educated, to work hard, to be twice as good as if you had to be, to do languages and culture better.

You slight yourself when you're easily slighted.

I was an adopted child of my grandparents, and I don’t know how I can ever express my gratitude for that because my parents would have been a mess.

Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.

Creativity is neither the product of neurosis nor simple talent, but an intense courageous encounter with the Gods.

Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won.

When all feels calm and prices surge, the markets may feel safe; but, in fact, they are dangerous because few investors are focusing on risk.