Alastair Reynolds

"“Can I still wish you good luck?” “You can wish me what the hell you like. It won’t make any difference. If it did, it would mean I hadn’t prepared well enough."

"And even if what they showed you is true, that doesn’t begin to make it right. The cause might be just, Felka, but history’s littered with atrocities committed in the name of righteousness."

"Clavain saw it all with sudden, heart-stopping clarity: all that mattered was the here and now. All that mattered was survival. Sentience that bowed down and accepted its own extinction—no matter what the long-term arguments, no matter how good the greater cause—was not the kind of sentience he was interested in preserving."

"There were choices to be made, harder choices than I would have liked, and I realised that I had been neglecting them because of their very difficulty."

"Memo to himself: the one way to make people panic was to warn them not to."

"All machines knew what would happen to them when their masters lost faith in their infallibility."

"To feel oneself so tiny, so fragile, so inherently losable, was at first spiritually crushing. But, by the same token, this realisation was also strangely liberating: if an individual human existence meant so little, if one’s actions were so cosmically irrelevant, then the notion of some absolute moral framework made about as much sense as the universal ether. Measured against the infinite, therefore, people were no more capable of meaningful sin—or meaningful good—than ants, or dust. Worlds barely registered sin. Suns hardly deigned to notice it. On the scale of solar systems and galaxies, it meant nothing at all. It was like some obscure subatomic force that simply petered out on those scales."

"But sanity, Vasko decided, was like the pattern of lights he could see through his cabin window. In almost any direction the only way to travel was into darkness, and there was a lot more darkness than light."

"Rashmika could tell when anyone around her was lying. But seeing through her own deceptions was another matter entirely."

"The virus was not helping. He had hoped that it would, but the feelings it brought were too superficial. When he most needed their succour he could feel them for the paper-thin façades they were. Just because the virus was tickling the parts of his brain that produced feelings of religious experience didn’t mean he was able to turn off the other parts of his mind that recognised these feelings as having been induced artificially. He truly felt himself to be in the presence of something sacred, but he also knew, with total clarity, that this was due to neuroanatomy. Nothing was really with him: the organ music, the stained-glass windows in the sky, the sense of proximity to something huge and timeless and infinitely compassionate were all explicable in terms of neural wiring, firing potentials, synaptic gaps."

"The church-sponsored archaeologists were the only ones who had any kind of overview of the entire haul of relics, and they were under intense pressure to ignore any evidence that conflicted with Quaicheist scripture. That was why Rashmika wrote them so many letters, and why their infrequent replies were always so evasive. She wanted an argument; she wanted to question the entire accepted view of the scuttlers. They wanted her to go away."

"Maps had never really been his thing, even during his days under Scorpio in Chasm City. There, it had hardly mattered. Blood’s motto had always been that if you needed a map to find your way around a neighbourhood, you were already in trouble."

"“Personally,” Scorpio said, “I think it’s time to stop thinking chivalry and start thinking artillery.”"

"“But of course, you don’t believe in the existence of sin, do you?” “I believe in the existence of reckless stupidity,” Rashmika replied."

"I’m fed up with everyone being lied to just because the administration thinks it’s in our best interests not to know all the facts."

"He’s not really a religious man, but he knows which side his bread’s buttered on. The churches pay his salary, so he doesn’t want anyone rocking the boat with unorthodox rumours."

"“That would require an unprecedented leap of faith.” “I don’t do faith,” Scorpio said."

"It was a glaring omission, a sign of cosmic sloppiness. Not even that, Vasko corrected himself. It was a sign of cosmic obliviousness. The universe didn’t know what was happening here. It didn’t know and it didn’t care. It didn’t even know that it didn’t know."

"“Until recently we were a trio. Before that, a quartet. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m beginning to detect a trend.”"

"“I thought debate was supposed to be healthy,” she countered. “It is,” Auger replied, “so long as you don’t disagree with me.”"

"As always, it was necessary to strike a balance between a cavalier disregard for the rules and a professional understanding that some rules were more flexible than others."

"Charm was what he excelled at. If anyone sensed his underlying shallowness, they usually mistook it for well-hidden great depth of character, like misinterpreting a radar bounce."

"“The Fascists got what they deserved,” Floyd said. “My husband lived long enough to see those monsters come to come to power. He saw through their lies and promises, but he also knew that they spoke to something nasty and squalid in the human spirit. Something in all of us. We want to hate those who are not like us. All we need is an excuse, a whisper in the ear.”"

"“Maybe it’s not as bad as she fears. Old people always think the world is going to ruin. It’s their job.” “Maybe they’re right,” Floyd replied."

"“There’s a catch,” Skellsgard said. “Another one? But of course there is. You know, I’m thinking I should start a collection.”"

"“The central defect of the human mind,” Custine said, “is its unfortunate habit of seeing patterns where none exist. Of course, that is also its chief asset.” “But sometimes a very dangerous one.”"

"Why was it never good news that put problems into perspective? Why did it always take another set of problems?"

"“It must be a real one-horse town.” Auger shook her head as she lit a cigarette. “It has wild ambitions of becoming a one-horse town.”"

"Nice girls don’t carry guns."

"She must have walked through life with men like him falling at her feet, squashing them underfoot like autumn leaves. It probably happened so often that all she noticed was that nice crunching sound."

"“I’ll survive,” Floyd said. “I’m a private detective. If I don’t get clouted on the head at least once a week, I’m not doing my job properly.”"

"“Is that as bad as it sounds?” Floyd asked. “No,” Auger said. “It’s worse. A lot worse.”"

"The future might have been crammed with miracles and wonders, but it also offered truly awesome opportunities for screwing up."

"Anxiety is a useful tool: it forces us to make plans. But when too much anxiety freezes us into indecision, it needs checking."

"No one ever took music away from me, but I’m damned if it ever sounds quite as good as it used to when I was twenty."

"“I feel as if I’m missing all the excitement.” ”In my experience,” Tunguska said, making himself a temporary seat, “excitement is always better when it happens to other people.”"

"“But at least you cared. At least you were ready to do something.” “This little mess,” Auger said, “is all because of people who were ready to do something. People like me, who always know when they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe what we need is a few less of us.”"

"The simple fact was that she no longer hated them as a matter of principle. It was also a source of shameful amazement that she could ever have wasted so much energy on groundless prejudice, when acceptance and tolerance would have been the easier, even the lazier, course."

"But when she tried to say something, the words always seemed trite and inadequate. Nothing measured up. When any moment might be their last, there was nothing she could ever imagine saying that had the necessary dignity to fill that instant. Silence was better. Silence had its own dignity."

"It was bad, but it was some other slightly less piquant flavour of bad."

"Auger could not help marvelling at the experience of being inside the ALS sphere and seeing her world as it should have been. This was an earth that had never known nuclear war, or runaway climatic catastrophe, or smart weather, or a Nanocaust. The sight of it made her want to weep. No image had ever come close to the heartbreaking beauty of this small blue world, a beauty all the more acute now that she knew how exquisitely fragile it was. It was the beauty of a butterfly’s wing."

"There was something about the cocksure confidence of that statement that gave Auger goose pimples. It was like an invitation to fate."

"I guess I’ll do what everyone else does: get on with my life and forget the big questions."

"It was astonishing how quickly friendship could turn to enmity, she thought, like a compass needle swinging from one pole to the other. They’d been excellent friends. They’d make excellent enemies as well."

"There’s a lot here we don’t understand. Adding one more thing to the list doesn’t strike me as the worst crime imaginable."

"Such hopes now seemed ludicrous in their naivety, like trying to stop a bulldozer with a feather."

"It’s always easier to hate than to forgive, isn’t it?"

"“You always did think like an engineer, Svieta.” She nodded. It was only hours later that she realised he had not necessarily meant it as a compliment."

"Once, they would have meant something to Svetlana, but now all she felt was a faint prickly of recollection. Fluency with mathematics—in the context of any kind of engineering discipline or physical science—was a use-it-or-lose-it skill."

"“Even godlike aliens have to act rationally—don’t they?” “I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I can’t recall ever meeting any.”"