Nothing beats a long wait at a bus stop as a reality check. - Ben Aaronovitch

Anything that can go wrong with armed men in the light can go twice as wrong in the dark.

This is a terrible work," I said. "Why did you do it?"
"The usual reasons," said the Magister. "I told myself it was piety and duty to the Church, but a thousand years of contemplation will batter down the doors of one's own delusions.

The old days," said Smith. "Isn't that what you're asking about? Because I was a respectable businessman."
"But Smithy," said Stephanopoulis. "I don't believe in respectable businessmen. I've been a copper for more than five minutes. And the constable here doesn't think you're respectable either, because it happens he is a card-carrying member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party and so regards all forms of property as a crime against the proletariat."
That one caught me by surprise and the best I could manage was "Power to the people.