James S. A. Corey

"Traveling between the planets had never eliminated murder. So many highly evolved primates in the same box for months on end, a certain death rate had to be expected."

"It was a lesson he’d never forgotten. That humans only have so much emotional energy. No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end."

"If you’re aiming not to creep me the hell out, you need more practice."

"“I don’t think he sees it that way,” Pa said. And then, “But I think he’s putting a lot of effort into not seeing it that way.”"

"Her fantasies of it were so strong, they were like memories."

"“Trashy people puke,” Tilly said. “Ladies are unwell.”"

"History is made up of people recovering from the last disaster."

"“The devil is here,” Cortez said. He shook his head at Anna’s protesting frown. “Not some cartoon demon. I’m not a fool. But the devil has always lived in men when they reach too far, when they fail to ask if they should do something just because they can do it.”"

"Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she’ll be haunted by what might be behind it. A few people liked to paint this drive as a weakness. A failing of the species. Humanity as the virus. The creature that never stops filling up its available living space. Hector seemed to be moving over to that view, based on their last conversation. But Anna rejected that idea. If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they’d all still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another’s fur. Anna had walked on a moon of Jupiter. She’d looked up through a dome-covered sky at the great red spot, close enough to see the swirls and eddies of a storm larger than her home world. She’d tasted water thawed from ice as old as the solar system itself. And it was that human dissatisfaction, that human audacity, that had put her there. Looking at the tiny world spinning around her, she knew one day it would give them the stars as well."

"“I’m getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, sacrificing an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised part of the ship. I was unconscious at the time, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”"

"Nothing ever killed more people than being afraid to look like a sissy."

"If the UN wants to space her, I’ll push the damn button myself."

"After a certain point, the past becomes irrelevant."

"God might not care about financial standing, but He was the only one."

"We keep acting without thinking and you think the solution is to do it one more time. You have allied yourself with stupid, violent men, and you are trying to convince yourself that being stupid and violent will work. That makes you stupid too. I will never help you. I’ll fight you now."

"He still wasn’t sure whether he believed it was true, even. But right now, it needed to be, and so it was."

"I’ve been famous before. It’s not so great."

"Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It’s attractive because it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s almost always available as an option. When you can’t think of a good rebuttal for your opponent’s argument, you can always punch them in the face."

"She wondered what it said about her that she’d watched a woman shot to death not two hours before and all she could think about now was lunch."

"There’s a difference between tragedy and evil, and I am that difference."

"When what came next didn’t matter, anybody could do anything. Nothing had consequences."

"They’d made a plan, and so far everything was more or less going the way they’d hoped. The thought left Holden increasingly terrified."

"Holden yelled in frustration. The universe kept waiting until he was thoroughly beaten, then tossing him a nibble of hope only to yank it away again."

"“Well,” Holden said, his voice grim, “we have a major problem. We’re out of coffee.” “We’ve still got beer,” Amos said. “Yes,” Holden said. “But beer is not coffee. I’ve put in a request with the Behemoth, but I haven’t heard back, and I can’t see going into the vast and unknown void without coffee.”"

"She was not a political creature. She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk."

"“At least he cares,” Elvi said. “I like him for that.” “You like everyone,” Fayez teased. It’s your pathology.” “You don’t like anyone.” “That’s mine,” he said, grinning."

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

"“Dammit,” Holden said after he’d killed the connection. “You ever get the sense that the universe is out to get you?” “Sometimes I get the sense that the universe is out to get you,” Amos said with a grin. “It’s fun to watch.”"

"You mean you want me to make it look like you’re doing something while you figure out what to do."

"Some secrets stayed secrets because nobody knew them. Some because nobody told."

"Everything was an artifact of its function. That’s what made evolution so gorgeous."

"“We’re the ones who followed the rules here. We came with science teams and a hard dome. We hired them to build our landing platform, and they killed us. We’re the good guys here.” “And the moral high ground is a lovely place,” Marwick said, as if he were agreeing. “It won’t stop a missile, though.”"

"The engineers groaned and shook their heads. Legal arguments were another phrase for bullshit to them."

"Human brains needed an answer, even if they had to make up something they knew was bullshit."

"You can order the sun to come up if you time it right."

"I hate that it breaks down that way. Your side and mine. One of my teachers back in school always used to say that contagion was the one absolute proof of community. People could pretend there weren’t drug users and prostitutes and unvaccinated children all they wanted, but when the plague came through, all that mattered was who was actually breathing your air."

"“Still. Maybe some good can come out of it.” “I admire your psychotic optimism.”"

"It was less fun being the chosen one and prophet when the gods were violent and capricious and their spokesman was insane and powerless."

"There were a lot of holes in that logic that he carefully avoided thinking about."

"“Right,” Holden said. “No coffee. This is a terrible, terrible planet.”"

"From where he was, the fear had stopped being an emotion and turned into an environment."

"There was no point to the attack except spite and the kind of violence that passed for meaning in the face of despair."

"They fought and worked and devised intricate plans to buy more time. Basia had no doubt that they’d work just as hard to keep each other alive for even a few more minutes. It wasn’t something he’d ever had to think about before. But it did seem to be a microcosm of everything in life. No one lived forever. But you fought for every minute you could get. Bought a little more with a lot of hard work."

"“Is that you?” Holden asked in what he was pretty sure was the new universal winner for stupid questions."

"But, like so many things in life, when you come to the spot where you’re supposed to do the rituals, you do them."

"“They say revenge is empty.” “This is my first try at it,” Holden said. “Forgive me if my opinions on it are fairly unformed.”"

"She isn’t stupid, but she’s learning to fake it."

"That was the danger of being old and a politician. Habits outlived the situations that created them. Policies remained in place after the situations that inspired them had changed. The calculus of all human power was changing, and the models she used to make sense of it shifted with them, and she had to keep reminding herself that the past was a different place. She didn’t live there anymore."

"“You familiar with the land rush in North America?” “Yeah,” Holden said, then took a sip of Fred’s coffee. It was delicious. Earth grown, and rich. The privileges of rank. “I got your covered wagon reference. I grew up in Montana, you know. That frontier shit is still the story the people there tell about themselves.” “So you know that the mythology of manifest destiny hides a lot of tragedy. Many of those covered wagons never made it. And more than a few of the people who did wound up as cheap labor for the railroads, mines, and rich farmers.” Holden drank his coffee and watched the ship construction. “Not to mention all the people who were living there before the covered wagons showed up and gave everyone a nifty new plague.”"

"Just once I’d like to be rewarded for my optimistic view of humanity."