“You cant afford anthropomorphic biases when some of the aliens most like us would rather make human hamburgers than peace.”

“Damn real live people, getting in the way of peaceful ideals.”

“For as much as I hate the cemetery, Ive been grateful its here, too. I miss my wife. Its easier to miss her at a cemetery, where shes never been anything but dead, than to miss her in all the place...”

“Trust your weapon, it is almost certainly smarter than you are. Remember this and you may yet live.”

“What is it like when you lose someone you love?" Jane asked."You die, too. And you wait around for your body to catch up.”

“Part of what makes us human is what we mean to other people, and what people mean to us. I miss meaning something to someone, having that part of being human.”

“I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, and with being this alive, this intense. (xxvi)”

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”

“Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in.”

“Blessed is the society with elderly souls.”

“From warm meals, to daily exercise, to healthcare; one can't help but wonder how our society would be different if tended to the elderly as we do to our imprisoned.”

“We are never old with the strength of the spirit, although the body may fail.”

“The only time they ever throw anything away is when it's really and truly broken, and then they make a big deal about it. They save up all their bent pins and broken sewing needles and once a year ...”

“We were young. Everyone was young in those days. Thats the main complaint you hear from people who are getting old. You stop seeing young people. You begin to wonder if there are any left and wheth...”

“If only I had met Molly sooner, when it was still possible to choose one road rather than another. Before that bitch Musyne and that little turd Lola crimped my enthusiasm. But it was too late to s...”