I have to congratulate you," she murmured as we walked, "on the thoroughness of your preparations. Every document and contact indicates that you are … - Catherine Webb

Do you think you've ever made a difference to the course of linear events?" I inquired. "Have you, personally, ever affected the outcome of a war?"
"Fuck no!" He chuckled. "We're just fucking soldiers. We kill some guys, they kill our guys, we kill their guys back—none of it fucking means anything, you know? Just numbers on a page, and only when the numbers get big enough do the fat cats who decide this shit sit down and go, 'Wow, let's make the decisions we were always gonna have to make anyway.' I'm no threat to temporal events, partner—I'm just the fire in the stove. And you know the best bit?" He beamed, climbing to his feet, tossing a fist full of bunched-up notes into the corner of the hut, like a master throwing scraps to a pet. "None of it fucking matters. Not one bullet, not one drop of blood. None of it makes any fucking difference at all.

Knowledge is not a substitute for ingenuity, merely an accelerant.

The roads were defined merely by the place where the mud was most pressed down.