People From New Jersey

"“On the surface, it’s crazy, right?” “It’s crazy down beyond the surface, too,” Dora affirmed."

"“You think she’ll make it?” “She should. Unless something else goes wrong.” Tsaami’s tone was sour. “Caine: this is a battlefield. Something else always goes wrong.” To which Riordan had no ready response. After all, Karam was right."

"“How would you answer their demand for justice and vengeance?” “I would begin by insisting that justice and vengeance are different. Vengeance is often blind to reason: all it can see is the object it hates. Conversely, justice is blind to our preferences and prejudices; all it may see are the deeds and the conditions under which they were carried out.”"

"“You would have been quite pleased if Hitler had won World War II. That would have made your job easier for you.” Sukhinin, whose family was said to have suffered horribly in his nations Great Patriotic War against the Nazis, wore a smile that was more reminiscent of bared teeth. Shethkador’s reply was almost casual. “Of course we would have preferred that outcome. You would have been preacculturated to our ways.” Downing raised an eyebrow. “So Adolf Hitler is your idea of an ubermensch?” “Hitler? A superior being? Fate, no. Do not mistake our approval of the ethos of a regime for admiration of its leader. Hitler was a weak, superstitious amateur whose profound insecurities and absolute in ability to perceive himself accurately ultimately caused the downfall of his project.” “How so?” “Is it not obvious? Firstly, he surrounded himself with those like himself; fanatics who were also cranks, individuals whose personal derangements or need for rationalizing their own inferiority led them to a psychopathic projection of their own feelings onto others. The true object of their exterminations was what they most feared and loathed in themselves; weakness, insufficiency, flaccidity, cowardice. They could not admit this, of course, so they protected the roots of their self-hatred by ensuring that these traits were not the overt criteria upon which their social extirpations were based. Rather, they demonized specific groups and then attributed these treats to them, thereby amplifying the political appeal of their movement by invoking traditional prejudices and stereotypes through suitably crafted propaganda.”"

"And here are the wages you must pay in order to climb the political ladder, you foolish sod. You’ve got to do the dirty work that others have ordered. I’ve done it out of dubious patriotism. Let’s see if you’ll do it out of blind ambition."

"It was the oldest, most primal fear of humankind, inculcated by eons of brutal lessons which, titrated down into their purest form, became age’s invariable advice to youth: beware the things and places you do not know.Because out there, beyond the flickering ring of the tribal fire, on the unlit streets of concrete cities, in the unending depths of space—there lay an unquantifiable, unbounded potential for death."

"“We need no technological assistance. Hkh’Rkh capabilities and engineering is unsurpassed.” Yaargraukh managed to keep his tongue from writing out in a spasm of grim hilarity. “I have heard others say the same thing.” “And your response to them?” “That their empty rhetoric is delusional lunacy spoken as truth.”"

"If the motivation was simple greed, then that was a promising target for development as an agent inside the enemy’s camp. Greed was not only a predictable impulse, but was an indicator of the dependability of the individual being suborned. It was overwhelmingly associated with profoundly self-centered egos and values."

"Riordan stared. “Your…media…really advertised things like, uh, canned vegetables named after mythical monsters?” Paulsen shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe what our media did, on occasion.”"

"“If there’s a chance to talk our way out of a fight, this is the moment. Once blood is spilled, it becomes an Honor issue. Finding a way back to a parley would be difficult and highly unlikely.” “Yeah, I heard about that crap,” Karam muttered. “Scuttlebutt is that once Honor is involved, they become bushido bear-aardvarks beating their horse chests and making much ado about nothing.”"

"They still grumbled, of course, but never within his earshot. Besides, grumbling was the true anthem of every military unit that had ever existed. And their current grumbling was simply aimless grousing about the food, the cramped quarters, and anything else that struck them as modestly annoying. It was, in summary, both a harmless and timeless bonding ritual."

"Well, no plan survives contact with reality and today is no exception."

"All enlightenment begins in ignorance and humility. This place has been a constant instruction in both."

"Well, so be it. Today we only have time for the truth. Battles are won by facts and physics, not self-congratulatory ideology."

"Look: nations screw up like people do; sometimes they mean well, sometimes they’re selfish or delusional bitches on a spree, and sometimes they just plain make mistakes. But the megacorporations don’t make mistakes; if they do damage, it’s because they like the cost-to-benefit ratios, dead innocents notwithstanding. Nations are bulls in the global china shop; corporations are sharks."

"Your arrogant self-importance is complicating your perception of what is a very simple matter."

"But then again, discipline and its trappings—ranks, protocols, traditions—did not define the difference between a soldier and a civilian. The difference was in outlook. Brilliant civilian researcher Hirano Mizuki stared into the shadowy reaches of alien underbrush and saw no reason for caution. Caine, on the other hand, saw an unguarded perimeter in unexplored terrain that might conceal unknown threats."

"“The megacorporations have a long history of mining antigovernment organizations for support. They throw a lot of money at them: sometimes directly, sometimes through plausibly deniable proxies.” Hwang screwed up his face. “And do these groups really join forces with the megacorporations? They’re far more autocratic than nation-states.” Caine shook his head. “It’s not a direct alliance. But the megas aren’t really looking for cocombatants against ‘the tyranny of nations.’ They’re just funding grassroots resistance to national authority.”"

"Veriden cut an annoyed glance at Riordan but said nothing; he suspected that even she saw the irony in starting an argument over whether she was argumentative."

"Bigotry was not only invulnerable to the appeals of logic and deduction; it was often blind to counterproofs such as those Yaargraukh had just witnessed."

"“So,” sighed Rulaine, “we’re pretty much screwed.” Yaargraukh’s black eyes stared. “I do not understand your expression—‘screwed?’ This is a carpentry metaphor?” Bannor almost smiled. “Not exactly.”"

"Where greed is great, corruption is simple."

"“Did he just wink?” whispered Downing. “If not, he developed a very timely facial tic,” Caine replied."

"They are not speculating upon the mysteries behind us, only upon the possibilities before us."

"And in the time it had taken to reflect upon the significance of the moment, the moment was past. That was, after all, the nature of moments."

"Human social evolution is unique in that your race has achieved the maximum, even optimum, balance of violent aggression and social cohesion. Again, consider your recent past. What other race could teeter so long, and yet not topple over, the brink of nuclear self-extermination? And all in the name of ideals, which were simply the facades behind which you hid your national prejudices, racial fears, and innate savagery."

"“So nothing has really changed.” “Sometimes, when your adversary is trying to precipitate dramatic change, stability is the best victory.”"

"I know it’s human nature to want to draw conclusions, but I distrust straight-line projections when we only have two data points."

"“And saying that doesn’t get you in trouble, does it?” His smile broadened. “Nope. Not a bit.” He straightened up, stuck out his hand. “I’m glad I was able to come and give you the inside scoop on—absolutely nothing. And on the people who have absolutely nothing to do with it.” Caine smiled. “Your failure to impart any information has been very illuminating.”"

"The EMTs were accompanied by a smattering of suit-and-sunglass security types who were about as unobtrusive as a flock of condors in a day-care center."

"Beings that can laugh at themselves, particularly their own foibles, stand the greatest chance of attaining wisdom."

"Careful now: just the way you rehearsed it. Use as much truth as possible: that’s how you’ll get away with the lies."

"You’re very cheery. Too cheery. So I’m guessing today’s news is bad."

"“So—I’m a major. New pay grade.” She laughed. “My salary has just jumped from nothing to next-to-nothing. What will I spend it all on?”"

"Nice bluff—but I was born on the planet that invented poker."

"Most of my professors can’t see the wider forest of meaning because they’ve become obsessed with a few mostly meaningless trees."

"Idrem sensed Brenlor swinging toward the rash reactivity that the Srin often mistook for decisive action when confronted with a crisis."

"Riordan almost smiled. “You sound like another historian I know.” “Historian?” She stiffened. “I am an observer. I do not claim to convey a unified story, just the pieces for which I have data.”"

"A sense of humor—bitter or otherwise—is the hallmark of a survivor."

"If, fourteen years ago, he had entertained secret hopes of leaving a discernible, enduring mark on the legacy of humankind, he was now fully disabused of them."

"Only the good die young, so I’m destined to be immortal, I guess."

"“There are only three variables governing the outcome of any given situation. Power—political, economic, military, whatever. Intelligence—the information you have and how cleverly you use it. And chance.” “And that’s it?” “That’s it. Leaders get themselves too tangled up when they fail to break a situation—any situation—back down to those basics. Or when they forget the fundamental differences between the three variables.”"

"I’m sure that’s quite witty, but I have no idea what you mean."

"So what you are characterizing as conspiracy is merely an unfortunate coincidence."

"“Whatever destiny we assign to ourselves also defines our doom. It is there, lurking, waiting, from the instantiation of sentience. It is the antipodal defect of the virtue we call ‘foresight.’”"

"Zkhee’ah Drur the Elder had once observed that while one is yet alive to complain of misfortune, the greatest of all misfortunes has not yet occurred. But this turn of affairs seemed very close to disproving that ancient axiom."

"The only proper course of action regarding humanity was to leave it alone, and, if possible, isolate it. Just as one would handle any other sophont that was quite irremediably and dangerously insane."

"“Stosh, you are insane.” “I am inspired. They are frequently confused.”"

"Richard, we have fallen into the common trap of seeing ourselves at the center of the universe: all that goes on around us somehow has us as its subject and raison d’etre. But in reality, all the events, all the plans, all the acts we interpret as intentionally malign—or benign—to us may, in fact, have almost nothing to do with our species."

"“You are a traitor to your own race, servitor.” “No. I am its true servant, because the prerequisite of success is a ruthlessly clear understanding of reality, of the facts with which we must contend. Without that, all plans begin in error, and so, they must end in disaster.”"