All machines knew what would happen to them when their masters lost faith in their infallibility. - Alastair Reynolds

It was a numbers game, not a guaranteed method of avoiding being killed, but Clavain had been a soldier long enough to know that this was, ultimately, what most combat situations boiled down to.

We don’t aspire to genetic unity, no matter what your propagandists think. The pursuit of optima leads only to local minima. We honour our errors. We actively seek persistent disequilibrium.

Could be worse, as they say." "That's the sum story of human history, isn't it? Could be worse. As if that's the very best that we can manage.