It was a glaring omission, a sign of cosmic sloppiness. Not even that, Vasko corrected himself. It was a sign of cosmic obliviousness. The universe d… - Alastair Reynolds

I'm just saying...we can't trust them. We've never been able to trust them. That's always been a cornerstone of our operational policy." "Then maybe it's time we got a new cornerstone. They're people, Lillian. They might be people who make us uncomfortable, people with very different values from ours, but when we're facing local extinction at the hands of a genocidal machine intelligence, I don't think the differences between us look massively significant, do you?

I wish there was something we could do. But organised structure is the most precious thing in the universe. When it is lost, it is truly lost.

We're flexible," Campion said. "It's the price we pay for being sentient.