And I admit, I don’t like dying very much myself. But I look forward to Death herself, once the dying is over. - Elizabeth Bear

"Cultural hegemony is based on conformity," he said, after a pause long enough that she had expected to go unanswered. "Siege mentality. Look at oppressed philosophies, religions—or religions that cast themselves as oppressed to encourage that kind of defensiveness. Logic has no pull. What the lizard brain wants, the monkey brain justifies, and when things are scary, anything different is the enemy. Can come up with a hundred pseudological reasons why, but they all boil down to one thing: if you aren't one of us, you're one of them."

There were idiots on every planet who considered possession more important than morality.

We need what we need. Judging ourselves doesn’t change it. Sometimes a hug and a cookie right now mean more than a grand gesture at some indeterminate point in the future.