Tyranny always has its rationale. - Michael Swanwick

Okay, so we broke the rules. That's good! There are no more rules—they're broken. Anything is possible now. We'll find a solution. There has to be a solution. There always is."
"Not in my experience." They were, he realized, standing on opposite sides of the great divide that separates those who deal with scientific fact and those who deal with the consequences of human actions. Which is to say, those who believe in a rational universe and those who know that, given the existence of human beings, there is no such thing. "You and I belong to entirely different universes, did you know that?

Good men are dying at this very moment to protect you, your factories, your possessions, and all civilization."
"Good men are dying every moment," Gretchen replied coldly, "somewhere. Since they did not ask my leave to do so, I feel no particular obligation toward them.

This was human glory—a sad and exhaust-darkened memorial for good citizens to ignore and drunks to piss upon on their way home from the brothels. Here was the omega-point of all ambition.