Telepathy and intelligence appear to be incompatible from the evolutionary point of view—if you’ve got one, you don’t seem to need the other, and the… - James Blish

One thing you learn fast in the munitions business is that it’s a very good idea to stay off battlefields.

Actually, there are never motives behind actions. All actions are fixed. What we call motives evidently are rationalizations by the helpless observing consciousness, which is intelligent enough to smell an event coming—and, since it cannot avert the event, instead cooks up reasons for wanting it to happen...or ascribes it to the malice of God or man.

"Something tells me that this isn't going to be as simple as it looks."
"What is?" Wald said, raising his eyebrows.
"Nothing, of course. But hope springs eternal in the human spleen.