“We are nature. Our every tinkering is nature, our every biological striving. We are what we are, and the world is ours. We are its gods. Your only difficulty is your unwillingness to unleash your p...”

“Pain held no terror for him. Pain was, if not friend, then family, something he had grown up with in his crche, learning to respect but never yield to. Pain was simply a message, telling him which ...”

“The problem with surviving was that you ended up with the ghosts of everyone youd ever left behind riding on your shoulders.”

“You couldnt live close to war and not have it grab you eventually.”

“Hell, were all bullet bait sooner or later. Doubt it makes much difference. You make it to sixteen, youre a goddamn legend.”

“Her face was smeared with mud and blood and ash. Just another bit of debris in the wreckage of war.”

“Kevyn, Ennesby tells me you are building a time machine.Actually I'm finished.In one afternoon? Wow... Does it work?After a fashion....I put a whole lot of energy into it, and the next thing I knew...”

“Engineering is the continuation of politics by other means”

“Each type of knowledge has value; however, from an engineering point of view, practical knowledge seems to be more valuable than theoretical knowledge.”

“And once you've been to this Center, this Truth, you'll know your way everywhere. You are never lost again.”

“The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love yo...”

“What Joab did not and could not know was that it was ego, and the ego of a king is just like the ego of anyone else. It is a social infection, entering each person as a psychological virus that is ...”