"“Whenever scientists say they’re Christian,” Sax said, “I take it to be an aesthetic statement.” “The church of the wouldn’t-it-be-pretty-to-think-so,” Frank said."

"Their thinking clashed radically with Western thought; for instance the separation of church and state was wrong to them, making it impossible for them to agree with Westerners on the very basis of government. And they were so patriarchal that some of their women were said to be illiterate—illiterates, on Mars! That was a sign. And indeed these men had the dangerous look that Frank associated with machismo, the look of men who oppressed their women so cruelly that naturally the women struck back where they could, terrorizing sons who then terrorized wives who terrorized sons and so on and so on, in an endless death spiral of twisted love and sex hatred. So that in that sense they were all madmen."

"Ridiculous. But lies were what people wanted; that was politics."

"“And with our work,” John continued, “we are carving out a new social order and the next step in the human story”—i.e., the latest variant in primate dominance dynamics."

"Now I like climbing as much as anybody, almost, but I am not going to try to claim to you that it is an exceptionally sane activity."

"Science is--or should be--the greenest force of all."

"I think the US is in a terrible state of denial … Worse than that, we seem to be caught in a kind of Götterdämmerung response: we'd rather have the world go down in flames than change our lifestyle or admit we're wrong."

"If the amount of money going into the war economy were invested in landscape restoration, we would be in a far more positive position. It may get a little dire before we pull together, but I think when the prosperous nations, and in particular the US, realise they're wrecking their own kids' lives, there will be a mass change in value. It will be a difficult century, and ugly, but I don't think that in the end people are so stupid as to kill themselves off."

"Science fiction rarely is about scientists doing real science, in its slowness, its vagueness, the sort of tedious quality of getting out there and digging amongst rocks and then trying to convince people that what you're seeing justifies the conclusions you're making. The whole process of science is wildly under-represented in science fiction because it's not easy to write about. There are many facets of science that are almost exactly opposite of dramatic narrative. It's slow, tedious, inconclusive, it's hard to tell good guys from bad guys — it's everything that a normal hour of Star Trek is not."

"“Everybody rich and happy.” She smiled. “Also complacent and rather stupid, you may have noticed.”"

"If you asked him, he would say the only connection between free will and religion in his life was the fact that he hadn’t set foot in a synagogue since he turned eighteen."

"Rationalism doesn’t require “belief,” only observation. The real, measurable world doesn’t care what you believe."

"It was so much more complicated than it had to be, but the changeling had noted that this was true of every human biological function that wasn’t involuntary."

"My own religion, if you can call it that, had changed in its fundamental premise, but not its basic assertion: I’d always told religious friends that there may or may not be a God, but if there is one, I wouldn’t want to have him over for dinner. I’ll stand by that last part."

"“But all I have is hearsay, passed on by others of my kind.” “Including this ‘nameless’ stuff,” I said. “That’s true. And at various times in my life, I’ve wondered whether it might not be a delusion—some sort of fiction that we share. Like a religion: there’s no way you or I could prove that the nameless don’t exist.”"

"Most of human history had been industry versus nature, with industry winning."

"I could have argued with his logic, but over the years have learned to find more pleasant ways to waste my time."

"Fish and chickens were the only animals we’d had aboard in zerogee. Fish can’t tell the difference and chickens are too dumb to care."

"Fathers and daughters don’t communicate that well even when alien languages and secret conspiracies aren’t involved."

"The more leaves, the more Tree."

"“We’re in jail, Charlie.” I made a gesture that didn’t knock anything over. “We can’t see the bars because they’re over the horizon.”"

"The generator was worth its weight in bureaucrats."

"“Some are born crazy,” Amelia said. “Some achieve craziness. We had craziness thrust upon us.”"

"“You’re actually a soldier,” he said to me, “and you go along with this foolishness?” “I didn’t ask to be a soldier. And I can’t imagine a peace as foolish as this war we’re in.”"

"Human nature does change, and the fact that we’ve developed tools to direct that change is quintessentially human. And it must be a nearly universal concomitant to technological growth everywhere in the universe; otherwise there would be no universe. Unless we’re the only technological intelligence in the universe, Julian pointed out; so far there’s no evidence to the contrary. Maybe our own existence is evidence that we’re the first creatures to evolve far enough to hit the reset button. Somebody does have to be first. But maybe the first is always the last."

"Maybe war is an inevitable product of human nature. Maybe to get rid of war, we have to become something other than human."

"“You were a Jesuit?” “Franciscan. We run a close second in being pains in the ass.”"

"Nobody else in that platoon can tell a Hamiltonian from a hamburger."

"She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind. Is that a difference between men and women or between you and me?” “I think it’s a difference between you and merely sane people.”"

"Like a lot of things that everybody knows, it wasn’t true."

"It was an ideological war for some—the defenders of democracy versus the rebel strong-arm charismatic leaders. Or the capitalist land-grabbers versus the protectors of the people, take your pick."

"We did it with their government’s foreknowledge and permission, of course—and there were no civilian casualties, equally of course. Once they’re dead they’re rebels."

"One thing most of us agree on is that the universe exists (people who deny that usually follow some trade other than science), so if some theoretical particle interaction would lead ultimately to the nonexistence of the universe, then you can save a lot of electricity by not trying to demonstrate it."

"Maybe after the war we’ll be civilized again. That’s the way it has always happened in the past."

"In a physical way we’re closer than any civilian pair could be, since in full combat jack we are this one creature with twenty arms and legs, with ten brains, with five vaginas and five penises. Some people call the feeling godlike, and I think there have been gods who were constructed along similar lines. The one I grew up with was an old white-bearded Caucasian gent without even one vagina."

"“We’re inferring from an absence of data,” Jacque said. “That’s lousy science.”"

"CAROL: You don’t care for the music? JACQUE: Music! It’s just a gimmick to sell lutes and flutes."

"Men started to geoform the earth in the middle of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, a lot of the early work was done by people who failed to see the earth as a closed set of mutually interrelated systems."

"I never found anyone else and I don’t want anyone else. I don’t care whether you’re ninety years old or thirty. If I can’t be your lover, I’ll be your nurse."

"It was making me a little queasy. Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop."

"I had to stifle an impulse to laugh. Surely “cowardice“ had nothing to do with his decision. Surely he had nothing so primitive and unmilitary as a will to live."

"Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there...the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted."

"And there are things that are hard to talk about—you'll rub off their marvelous pollen at the touch of a word."

"She hadn’t been such a bad girl before the power went to her head."

"I have always valued quiet, and the eternity of it that I face is no more dreadful than the eternity of quiet that preceded my birth."

"Big money seeks out the company of its own, for purposes of reproduction."

"“I’m a sort of literature specialist. American literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Usually. Most of my timespace is taken up with guys like Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt, Heinlein, Bierce. Crane, Spillane, Twain. “William Dean Howells?” “Not him or James or Carver or Coover or Cheever or any of those guys. If everybody gave me as little trouble as William Dean Howells I could spend most of my timespace on a planet where the fishing was good.” “Masculine writers?” John said. “But not all hairy-chested macho types.” “I’ll give you an A- on that one. They’re writers who have an accumulating effect on the masculine side of the American national character. There’s no one word for it, though it is a specific thing: individualistic, competence-worshiping, short-term optimism and long-term existentialism. ‘There may be nothing after I die but I sure as hell will do the job right while I’m here, even though I’m surrounded by idiots.’ Do you see the pattern?”"

"Nothing is simple. The only thing that’s simple is that nothing is simple."