Quotes from Nick Webb

When you think you're on the good side, you're capable of unthinkable evil.

There were three things that could fundamentally change a person: time, alcohol, and managing a bureaucracy.

the evil Swarm, and the backstabbing Dolmasi, and the enigmatic Skiohra, and even the other two known alien races that humanity had never met, the Findiri and Quiassi, and Danny would make up names for the alien ships and descriptions of what the aliens looked like and how their ships— Dammit, stop daydreaming

Reject the tribalism. Reject the calls to fight the other team. The other party. The other species. The other football club. The other family down the street that has a bigger interstellar corvette than you. Don't demonize the other candidate. Don't hate the opponent. Oppose them. Debate them. Disagree with them. But then, at the end of the day, break bread with them. Because I promise you this: we will all need each other again. And again. And again. Thank you.

And you know why I didn't get those scans?" He looked back at the blanket-draped figure. "I was scared of dying. Terrified. Didn't want to face it. Didn't want to acknowledge it might happen—that I'd be forced to retire, confined to a hospital bed and get bed sores all over my ass. And then, boom. Nothing. No thoughts. No feeling. No existing. Just ... nothing.

astronomical units

We inhabit a world in which we tend to put labels on each other and expect that we will then march through life wearing them like permanent sandwich boards.

The old memories were making him angry, boiling up inside of him. That was good. It meant he was still alive. Dead men couldn't fight. Only living men, fuming at injustice and enraged at the loss of their fellows, fought, and won wars. "Cap'n

A few minutes later his XO appeared, saluting the marine guard as she crossed the threshold to the bridge, which sensibly resided deep within the armored core of the ship rather than being perched precariously on the top of the vessel like an old-style soda can on the fence, ready to be picked off as alien target practice.

And it was gone—the super-carrier Justice. At least three thousand souls manning its gun crews, engine rooms, half a dozen flightdecks ... all gone in a brilliant, pixelated flash of light. The massive ship fractured into two main pieces, and the aliens, not content with the destruction, blasted the remaining larger half until it too exploded into several dozen smaller pieces.

No." Her eyes were like chips of stone. "He died because the Telestines have enslaved us. He died for humanity." He

Like a voter's face saying, I may not like you, but I'll vote for you anyway because you might give me something I want.

Those are the right and left facing pages of a printed book. And what's in the middle?" Silence around the table. Zingano offered, "A book?" "Interstellar One?" said Norton. "A SPINE," she yelled, banging the table with a fist for emphasis. "A goddamned spine. Lesson number one. Show your spine, or they'll eat you up and shit you out like the little turds you are.

You can forget Proust and those stupid cakes. Beatles' songs are more potent.

A day of infamy. It will forever be remembered among my people as our lowest moment. Our darkest time.

Memories seem to be stored using a variety of mysterious principles, so that you have to circle around and around, through misty clouds of association, before you can relocate some missing piece. It is easy to persuade yourself of the truth of something for which the only evidence is a strong urge to believe. Douglas

The only dangerous thing about ignoramuses is when they vote for ignoramuses.

missed that place. Lavish, finely decorated

that—too busy playing football. I figured someone was…." He trailed off. Isaacson glanced up. "Was what?" "Never mind. Need anything else, sir? I

Dead men couldn't fight. Only living men, fuming at injustice and enraged at the loss of their fellows, fought, and won wars.

Humans are tribalistic hypocrites who judge their enemies by their actions but themselves by their intentions.

When the danger came from within, the risk was always highest.

Jack Daniels. Damn, she broke out the good stuff for him.

A stray round blasted into her right wing