Persepolis Rising

In his opinion, faith was generally for people who were bad at math.

Your empire’s hands look a lot cleaner when you get to dictate where history begins and what parts of it don’t count.

I actually read history. It’s like reading prophecy, you know.

Don’t let things sit for too long. It’s always tempting to just ignore the things that aren’t actually on fire just at the moment, but then you’re also committing to spend your time putting out fires.

It'd be a better world if there was always at least one right answer instead of a bucket of fucked." -Chrisjen Avasarala

Tribalism was an irrational position, and it was impossible to defeat an irrational position with a rational argument.

I am a human being. Anything that happens to human beings could happen to me.

Because we’re human, and humans are mean, independent monkeys that reached their greatness by killing every other species of hominid that looked at us funny.

Every great nation, they said, was founded on a knife and a lie.

It seemed to her that the real sign you were getting old was when you stopped needing to prove you weren’t getting old.

Time was supposed to heal all wounds. To Drummer, that was just a nice way of saying that if she waited long enough, none of the things that seemed important to her would turn out to matter

The deep human instinct to come together in crisis. To take care of each other. In its best light, it was what made humanity human. But he also had the dark suspicion that it was a kind of bargaining. Look, universe, see how kind and gentle and nice I am? Don’t let the hammer fall on me. Even if it was only grief and fear, he’d take it. Anything that helped them all treat each other well.

Change should be watched, moderated, and questioned. But that conservative view shouldn’t rein in progress or put a damper on hope.

That seemed to be the human pattern—reach out to the unknown and then make it into the sort of thing you left in the first place.

Insurgencies are historically nearly impossible to eradicate, for a few very simple reasons. The insurgents don’t wear uniforms. They look just like the innocent populace. And, they’re the friends and family of that populace. This means that every insurgent killed tends to increase recruiting for the insurgency. So unless you are willing to rack up a sizable civilian casualty count, we can’t just shoot everyone we suspect. If we take the strongest possible response, we stop calling it counterinsurgency and start calling it genocide.

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.

A warning tone sounded through the drum, echoing with the distance and the free air. An artificial voice reassured them with its tone while it repeated, 'This is an emergency alert. Report to shelters and await official instructions.' "Listen," Naomi said. "They're playing our song." "Oh my," Clarissa said, laughing. "We have lived our lives wrong, haven't we?

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

It’s not I don’t trust, it’s that I don’t trust blind. People are people. Fucked up like we all are, it amazes me when we can even make a sandwich.

I’ve always rejected the great-man idea. The belief that human history was formed by singular individuals instead of broad social forces? Romantic, but …” He waved a hand vaguely, like he was stirring fog. “Demographic trends. Economic cycles. Technological progress. All much more powerful predictors than any one person. And yet here I am.

Every time someone starts talking about final anythings in politics, that means the atrocities are warming up. Humanity has done amazing things by just muddling through, arguing and complaining and fighting and negotiating. It’s messy and undignified, but it’s when we’re at our best, because everyone gets to have a voice in it. Even if everyone else is trying to shout it down. Whenever there’s just one voice that matters, something terrible comes out of it.

Everything changed, and it went right on changing. A terrible thought when things were good, a comforting one now. Whatever happened, she could be certain that things wouldn’t stay the way they were now. And if she stayed smart and clever and lucky, she’d be able to affect how the next change came. Or take advantage of it.

You think he may be a triple agent?” “It wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened. The one thing you know about someone who’s willing to compromise his allies is that he’s willing to compromise his allies.

The damage to her body, the wear and the weariness, were all products of conscious, determined choices made by a girl she hadn’t been in decades. She carried the weight of those decisions like a sack of bones.

Duty isn’t a buffet where you pick what you want and ignore the rest.

Anything worth encrypting is worth not putting on a network in the first place.

Your empire's hands look a lot cleaner when you get to dictate where history begins, and what parts of it count.

The door to the primary power junction was reinforced. A red border was painted around the frame, with warnings in half a dozen languages that all meant Please be careful. There’s a lot of things in here that we’ll have to fix after they finish killing you.