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Human technology was good, and weapon to weapon humans were as well-equipped as the vast majority of their adversaries. But the weapon that ultimately matters is the one behind the trigger.
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'I don’t appreciate the suggestion that I’m acting irrationally,' he said.'Then don’t act irrationally,' Jane said, 'because there will be consequences.'
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'This is Major Perry’s house?''I hope so,' I said. 'All his stuff is here.'
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'That’s a nice speech, Trujillo,' Rybicki said. 'It doesn’t make it true.''General, at the moment, I wouldn’t place you as an authority on truth.'
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Imagine if every species named itself after its greatest flaw. We could name our species arrogance.
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When you control communication, you can hide anything you want.
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'Every creature has fear,' Jared said. 'Even the non-conscious ones.''No,' Boutin said. 'Every creature has a survival instinct. It looks like fear but it’s not the same thing. Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.
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'I don’t know,' Davidson said. 'Maybe it’s not about politics. Maybe these guys are just assholes.''Seems the simplest explanation,' I said.
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The failure mode of clever is 'asshole.'
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'I have drinks,' Hanson said, coming up behind Duvall.'Why, Jimmy,' Duvall said. 'That makes you my new favorite person.'
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No, it's not fair. You're in the wrong universe for fair.
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'You and I don’t actually need to be here for this,' I said to the goat. The goat didn’t respond, but I could tell she agreed with me.
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'Harry!' Boutin said. 'Nice guy. Didn’t know he was that smart. He hid it well.'
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'I don’t think it would actually make you happier to be told you were right about this,' he said finally.'I don’t want to be happy,' Dahl said. 'I just want to know.'
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You are better at small talk than I am. That is not always a compliment.
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'Why ‘threep’? Why ‘clank’? Slang happens.'
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I guess I was just hoping there might be a way to do things other than the way that ends up with everyone getting killed.
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Eight-year-olds can switch into acquisition mode pretty quickly.
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I had never seen so many old people in one place at one time. Neither had Harry. 'It’s like Wednesday morning at the world’s biggest Denny’s,' he said.
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The recruit was Sam McCain; in one of our lunch sessions I recalled Sarah O’Connell describing him as more mouth than brain. Unsurprisingly, he’d been in sales most of his life.
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I’m not sure I like their plan for converting us to their religion, seeing as it involves dying and all.
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Who are you and what medications aren’t you taking?
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In this universe, experience counts.
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You are sufficiently like me to officially be interesting.