The wealth of the universe is all over your head. We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth, and to escape the sea of paper our… - Larry Niven

There had been a popular joke on Freedom, started by a man named Calder. Looking down from space, he had said, the dominant life forms on Earth were obviously the cereals and other grasses. They occupied all the most desirable and fertile land; and they had tamed insects and animals to care for them. In particular, they had domesticated the bipeds to nurture and cultivate them and to save and plant their seed. Now, watching the farmers, Alex could easily imagine that they were worshiping and genuflecting before their masters.

Why hadn't they built a lot of little Ringworlds instead?

Rod privately suspected the Scots studied their speech off duty so they’d be unintelligible to the rest of humanity.