You cannot avoid mortality. But you can choose your way of meeting it. And that is the most that any man can hope for. Live well, my son. - David Gerrold

Auberson’s first impression of the man was of eight pounds of potatoes in a ten-pound sack.

Whatever our purpose, we probably aren't fulfilling it. We're not functioning as we should.
He shrugged at her. "How should we function?"
"Like human beings." She said it righteously.
"Isn't that what the human race is already doing? Functioning like human beings—squabbling with each other, killing each other, hating...?"
"That's not human."
"Oh, but it is. It's very human."
"Well, it's not what human should be."
"Now that's a different story. You're not talking about what people are, but what you want them to be."
"Well, maybe we should be what we aren't because what we are now isn't good enough. Maybe we should be dismantled."
"I don't think we have to worry too much about somebody up there doing it—we're doing it ourselves."

The sullen power of great violence forged into shapes of metal is always ugly.