Daniel H. Wilson

"Being young don’t earn you a damn thing in my book."

"All the old men set to their jobs with the grim robotic work ethic that always belongs to the previous generation."

"Change scares people. Makes them dangerous."

"“Most people are good,” says Jim. “But not when they’re afraid.”"

"Humans need technology. It’s the one thing that we do better than any other animal. We communicate, cooperate, and make tools to extend our reach. Every new tool changes us."

"I’ve heard it said that technology makes a good person better, and it makes a bad person worse. That’s okay with me. I say we keep building new versions of ourselves, keep exploring the unknown, and keep growing. We’re gonna be fine. Different, but fine. Because most people are good. Right?"

"It is a well-established Achilles’ heel of human civilization that individuals are more motivated by immediate private reward than by long-term, collective future benefits. This effect is particularly evident when considering payoffs that will take longer than a generation to arrive—a phenomenon called intragenerational discounting."

"It has been subsequently theorized that our species’ seeming inability to focus on long-term existential threats will inexorably lead to the destruction of our environment, overpopulation, and resource exhaustion. It is therefore not an uncommon belief among economists that this inborn deficit represents a sort of built-in timer for the self-destruction of human civilization. Sadly, all the evidence of world history supports this theory."

"In the grand scheme of things, all human beings are part of the same family, regardless of origin. The divisions we have built between ourselves along the lines of race and geography are illusions. If our species is ultimately able to see past these biases, it will be our shared genetic stamp of humanness that will outlive the cultural contrivances that distract us in our day-to-day lives."

"Compartmentalized knowledge is a mainstay of spycraft and necessary for any governmental information dissemination process."

"“This is doable, isn’t it?” she asked. “Technically, it’s doable,” he replied, looking up at her. “It’s insane. But it’s doable.” “Then that will have to be enough,” said Vedala."