It was dark by the time Ye got off work on the eve of Chinese New Year, 1980. - Liu Cixin

If a country can condemn its president on Main Street, that’s called democracy. However, if everyone disobeys their boss, then this country will collapse.

But when they gaze up at the stars, they turn sentimental and believe that if extraterrestrial intelligences exist, they must be civilizations bound by universal, noble, moral constraints, as if cherishing and loving different forms of life are parts of a self-evident universal code of conduct.

Dark. It’s so fucking dark,” the captain murmured, and then shot himself.