James S. A. Corey

"The question wasn’t whether moving psychoactive alien seedpods between worlds was a good idea so much as whether someone was going to lose face in front of a committee meeting. Thus were the great decisions of history made."

"“Emily,” Drummer said, “do you know the one thing I am absolutely sure won’t fix any of our problems? Another committee.”"

"She couldn’t beat sense into a stone. Not even when it seemed fun to try."

"I mean, I’m all for forgiveness and bygones being bygones, but it’s easier to stomach that after the assholes are all dead.”"

"Her shoulders were tight. She felt like they were in the moment between throwing dice and seeing what numbers had come up. The gambler’s high. She didn’t like how much she liked it."

"“It’s reading as an incredibly strong magnetic field focused down to a narrow beam.” “Is that possible?” the duty officer said, her voice small and tight. “Only if you define ‘possible’ as things that have already happened,” Naomi said, not turning to look at her."

"All the food chemists in the system will never do better than evolution at making a decent tea leaf."

"Everyone spies on everyone, Camina. Let’s not pretend to be outraged at water for being wet."

"A brig had rules. It had expectations. You were in a brig until your lawyer or union rep came to talk to you. There would be hearings. If it went badly, there was prison. One thing followed another, and everyone called it justice, even when they all knew it was an approximation at best."

"“See if there’s anyone out there with a plan, or if we’re going to have to make one up on our own.” “We can do that,” Amos said. “Shouldn’t be hard.” “You sure?” Alex said. “This is Medina Station under occupation by a bunch of splinter Martian military expats. It’s not Baltimore.” Amos’ smile was as placid as always. “Everywhere’s Baltimore.”"

"Our backup plan is everyone does this right the first time so we don’t need a backup plan. Understood?"

"Drummer had read somewhere that newsfeeds were where secular societies went to find out what cultural narratives were important and what could be ignored."

"Put a dozen people in front of their cameras, and you’d wind up with thirteen opinions."

"If they kill us all, Drummer thought, this will be why. Not their technology, not their strategy, not the invisible cycle of history. It’ll be our inability to do anything without five committee meetings to talk about it."

"“All we need is one lucky break,” she said. “One thing to go our way, and your logistical mastermind who would never overreach loses his capital ship in front of everyone who’s watching. And I think everyone is watching.” “They are,” Avasarala agreed with a sigh. “But …” “But what?” Avasarala’s smile was thin, hard, and bitter. Her eyes flashed with an intelligence poisoned by despair. “But it isn’t hubris until he’s failed.”"

"It was, to say the least, a very high cost and very low probability of success. Singh assumed there was a faith element to the risk that he was just missing. In his opinion, faith was generally for people who were bad at math."

"Patriotism was weird shit."

"Insects buzzed about, still the best-designed pollinating system there was. Technology did a lot of things well, but evolution had it beat when it came to environmental systems."

"She had to remind herself that war was always this way. Had always been. Cities had been falling under siege since the time there were cities. Mortars had fallen on schools. Soldiers had stormed hospitals. Bombs had set churches and parks and children on fire. Homes had been lost before now."

"That says more about you than about the reality of things."

"Bobbie felt the pressure of time slipping away like she was watching a door close, with her on the wrong side of it."

"The sad fact of the human species that High Consul Duarte understood so well was that you could never overcome tribalism and jingoism with an argument. Tribalism was an irrational position, and it was impossible to defeat an irrational position with a rational argument."

"The universe was tricky, and its sense of humor came with teeth."

"“I mean it happened at the same time, but that’s the thing. Time doesn’t actually work like that. ‘The same time’ is a weird linguistic fantasy. It doesn’t exist. Simultaneity doesn’t act like this.”"

"It was always dangerous when the universe fell down in a pattern where the thing you wanted and the wise path were the same."

"Still. She had hoped. It never hurt to hope, except when it did."

"As an old drill sergeant had told her, pain is the warrior’s friend. Pain reminds you that you aren’t dead yet."

"Non-English quotation."

"Writing science fiction is a race between the author's imagination and the progress of science and history. Fiction is always on the losing end; the question is only how fast."

"The Nephesh community isn't the first religious or pseudo-religious group to decide that they get to choose whether the rules apply to them. Whether crimes are really crimes if one of their faithful is involved. The Catholic Church practically made raping altar boys into a brand. The Mormon/Boy Scout pedophile cover-up isn't covered up anymore. I'll stop there only because I don't have time to name every religion in existence and the shit they swept under their rugs in the name of Protecting the Faith. It seems like every time someone sets themselves up as a moral authority, it's to help bury the fact that they are doing something immoral."

"“Can’t I sue them for that?” “Anyone can sue anybody at any time for anything,” the lawyer said. “The question is, can you win?”"

"“This isn't fair.” “We don't deal with fair here. We deal with the law.”"

"Say what you will about organized crime, at least it’s organized."

"If Miller had ever been called upon to describe her, the phrase deceptive coloration would have figured in."

"“Too many dots,” Miller said. “Not enough lines.”"

"The enlisted guys will be okay, but the officers get the sense of humor trained out of ’em."

"It was a real book—onionskin pages bound in what might have been actual leather. Miller had seen pictures of them before; the idea of that much weight for a single megabyte of data struck him as decadent."

"If things got out of hand, it would mean six or seven million dead people and the end of everything Miller had ever known. Odd that it should feel almost like relief."

"He couldn’t fix the cancer of war, couldn’t even slow down the spread, but at least he could admit it was happening."

"She didn’t care. Not caring was how she got through the day."

"“See, this is why I can’t ever be in command,” she said. “Don’t like making tough calls with incomplete information?” “More I’m not suicidally irresponsible,” she replied."

"The beautiful thing about losing your illusions, he thought, was that you got to stop pretending."

"Never knew if you had any luck left unless you pushed it."

"It’s the problem with politics. Your enemies are often your allies. And vice versa."

"He probed himself like a doctor searching for inflammation. Did it hurt here? Did he feel the loss there? He didn’t. There was only a sense of relief so profound it approached giddiness."

"All bluster, no balls."

"This was the kind of man who’d killed Julie, Miller thought. Stupid. Shortsighted. A man born with a sense for raw opportunity where his soul should have been."

"When, Miller wondered, does someone stop being human? There had to be a moment, some decision that you made and before it, you were one person, and after it, someone else...If he’d seen it in someone else—Muss, Havelock, Sematimba—he wouldn’t have taken more than a minute to realize they’d gone off the rails. Since it was him, he had taken longer to notice. But Holden was right. Somewhere along the line, he’d lost himself."

"“There’s a right thing to do,” Holden said. “You don’t have a right thing, friend,” Miller said. “You’ve got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.”"

"“We regret the necessity of this action,” she said to everyone everywhere. “But in the cause of freedom, there can be no compromise.” That’s what it’s come to, Miller thought, rubbing a hand across his chin. Pogroms after all. Cut off just a hundred more heads, just a thousand more heads, just ten thousand more heads, and then we’ll be free."