I know the military. The sooner they can kick a problem upstairs the happier they will be. - Stephen Baxter

Hutton became very critical of a system where appointments depended not on merit but on the support of those in power. Of one possible opening for Watt he wrote, ‘I think it only needs to have a man properly bestir himself but that is what few political people do unless to serve themselves.’

“So that’s that,” Miriam said. “We have a plan.”
“You have a shared delusion,” I said.

You aren't doing much for morale, Sidewise."
Sidewise shot back, "And what about my morale? It does me no damn good to ignore what's blindingly obvious all around us.