Jack McDevitt

"Max was the exception. He had no taste for military life or for the prospect of getting shot at. His father, Colonel Maxwell E. Collingwood, USAF (retired), to his credit, tried to hide his disappointment in his only son. But it was there nonetheless, and Max had, on more than one occasion, overheard him wondering aloud to Max’s mother whether there was anything at all to genetics."

"He expected to have only one clear shot at the assorted joys of living, and he had no intention of risking it to meet someone else’s misconceived expectations."

"Ev was a careful man, a model of caution. He took pride in not committing to a view until all the facts were in. Which meant, of course, that he was never quite on board. Or in opposition."

"Never confuse perfection with production. People who don’t make mistakes aren’t doing anything."

"Lasker mouthed, “Trust him,” and Max sighed. Trust a lawyer? It flew in the face of his most cherished principles."

"“Most of my business comes from picking up the pieces when people get things wrong.” She grinned. “I’ll never lack for work.”"

"When do we reach a point where people become responsible for their own actions?"

"But the old man had provided his kids with one priceless gift: He’d encouraged them to read, and he didn’t bother too much about the content, subscribing to the theory that good books ultimately speak for themselves."

"A man without money is a bow without an arrow."

"We know that when change comes, no one is more adamant in holding on to the past than those in power. They know change is inevitable, but they would, if they could, parcel it out in measured pieces. Grain for chickens."

"Cities have a social utility, if only as places to get away from."

"New worlds are always hard on old ideas."

"As a rule, Evelyn disapproved of politicians. They tended to break down into two categories: the completely unprincipled, who comprised the vast majority; and those who lived by their principles no matter who suffered."

"Like his father, he believed the universe a clockwork mechanism; and if there was a clockmaker, he’d hidden himself too well and had therefore no justifiable complaint with unbelievers."

"It was housed in one of those garish ultramodern steel and glass abstract buildings, designed to demonstrate a kind of mathematical flow but which really only succeeded in marring the landscape."

"For Rick, it was a clear demonstration of what the game was really about. The media often maintained that campaigns weren’t substantive. But the media didn’t understand about electioneering. When they complained that issues were seldom discussed, that the debate got too personal, that in the end a fog of obfuscation was thrown over everything, they were missing the point: An election is an art form. Its purpose is not to illuminate the issues of the day, but to box in an opponent. To watch him try to wriggle free of charges and innuendo."

"Politics was a struggle for power, in its purest and simplest terms. If the voters were lucky, the winner would go on to improve their lot, because he would need their votes next time. Or because he enjoyed being popular. But issues were irrelevant. Always had been, probably. Once the age of mass communications arrived, presidents became entertainers, celebrities, if they were smart. FDR used his fireside chats; Kennedy had allowed spontaneous questions at press conferences, relying on wit and charm. Reagan knew from the films exactly how a president should behave, and he had exactly enough acting talent to bring it off. In that sense, he was the first modern president."

"Charlie was not a believer. He did not expect to be called to account and assigned a score for what he had done or left undone. His parents had believed in a mechanical world, a place of evolving hardware and software, no deities need apply. We just haven’t figured it all out yet, his father was fond of saying. Things get more complex and we don’t know why. But that doesn’t mean we have to ascribe it to divine providence."

"Come on, Harold. People like us can always find experts to tell us what we want to hear. It’s the biggest problem we have. Everybody lies to us because they want things from us."

"If you’ll forgive me, sir, physics is not politics. You can’t make things happen by trying harder."

"Those who rise to the top of organizations, who live to direct others, to wield power, are inevitably afflicted by weak egos, by a need to prove themselves. This explains why they are so easily frightened and so easily manipulated. And why they are so dangerous."

"The belief that society was in decline was a permanent characteristic of every era. People always believed they lived in a crumbling world. They themselves were of course okay, but everyone around them was headed downhill."

"Starships, of course, have few limitations with regard to design, the prime specification being simply that they not disintegrate during acceleration or course change."

"He was a good salesman, which was to say he could look people directly in the eye while making the most preposterous claims."

"Truth is like nudity: It is on occasion indispensable, but it is dangerous and should not be displayed openly. It is truth that gives life its grandeur, but the polite fictions that make it bearable."

"Emily had not been trained as a scientist, so she tended to draw conclusions based on emotional need rather than on evidence."

"“We are forever trying to sell science because somebody somewhere will get a better toothbrush,” she grumbled. “Whatever happened to sheer curiosity?”"

"When she’d mentioned it to Matt, he had piously denied everything. Piety was always how you knew Matt was lying."

"Never look for complexity in diplomatic decisions. With very few exceptions, actions always devolve—and that’s the exact term—from someone’s self-interest. Not the national self-interest, by the way. We are talking here about individual careers."

"There is, he’d said, an inverse correlation between the amount of power a person has and the level at which his or her mind functions. A person of ordinary intelligence who acquires power, of whatever kind, tends to develop an exaggerated view of his own capabilities. Sycophants gather. There is little or no criticism of decisions. As his ability to disrupt the lives of others advances, these tendencies become stronger. Eventually you end with Louis the Fourteenth, who thinks he’s done a good job for France, although the country he left behind was ruined."

"Sheyel had always maintained that few actions are driven by reason. People act out of emotion, perception, prejudice. They will believe what they’ve always believed, filtering out all evidence to the contrary. Until they go too far and run onto the rocks of reality."

"The people who devised physical theory and constructed jump engines were not the same people who made political decisions, or who allowed themselves to be swept up by the current media craze, or to be ruled by centuries-old traditions that might once have served to hold nations together but now had become counterproductive. Don’t assume that a species is intelligent because it produces intelligent individuals."

"“How are you going to define ‘spiritual’?” asked Mona. No one had any idea."

"What people do with their leisure tells us a great deal about the nature of a society, what its values really are, for example, as opposed to what its members say its values are."

"But, come to think of it, there was no need to wait. Time travelers don’t have to wait for anybody."

"And because she so desperately wanted it to be true, she knew she could not manage an objective judgment."

"“We are not a debating club,” Franklin said. “Our goal is to get at the truth, where that is possible.”"

"Katie commented that Americans had lost the ability to enjoy themselves. “We watch television,” Dave said."