18 quotes
Human, do you derive some strange pleasure by using different words to reiterate the same misperceptions?
Marque of Caine (2019)
The reality, both now and historically, was that whatever the future held, change was always uneven in distribution and irregular in timing.
Marque of Caine (2019)
When such leaders act in opposition to their sworn duties, they compound injustice with disgrace.
Marque of Caine (2019)
In the face of crisis, I will choose unauthorized action over disastrous inaction.
Marque of Caine (2019)
Whose tutelage led you into those fishless waters?
Marque of Caine (2019)
Stupid creatures tend to be stubborn creatures.
Marque of Caine (2019)
Your conjecture is reasonable but inaccurate.
Marque of Caine (2019)
You are impetuous. But then again, you are human.
Marque of Caine (2019)
“Damn it, Dad. You make me crazy.”
“That’s part of my job as a parent. If I read the manual correctly.”
Marque of Caine (2019)
“Whatever destiny we assign to ourselves also defines our doom. It is there, lurking, waiting, from the instantiation of sentience. It is the antipodal defect of the virtue we call ‘foresight.’”
Marque of Caine (2019)
“Aren’t you even going to wish me luck?”
“We do not believe in luck, Caine Riordan. However, I wish enlightenment unto you. In every passing second.”
Marque of Caine (2019)
“You mean, control my instincts?”
“No, most of your species can learn to do that. The true challenge is whether you can control your predisposition to assume moral equivalencies where none exist.”
Marque of Caine (2019)
Riordan almost smiled. “You sound like another historian I know.”
“Historian?” She stiffened. “I am an observer. I do not claim to convey a unified story, just the pieces for which I have data.”
Marque of Caine (2019)
These matters should incite more urgent investigation than the technology you arrogated from your attackers. But like most primitive cultures, your reflex is one of stimulus and response: to focus entirely on the issues and actions of the moment.
Marque of Caine (2019)
“Is Glamqoozht just a place name or does it mean something?”
“It translates imperfectly as Council Hub.”
Riordan was guardedly hopeful. “Sounds like it’s a place to get questions answered and decisions made.” Unless, of course, it was like human capitals.
Marque of Caine (2019)
I guess that, living in a sanitized world, you’ve forgotten this basic lesson: if you want to stay free or stay alive, never play by your opponent’s rules. Particularly when your opponent is more powerful than you are. Do the unexpected. Turn on your pursuer. Attack the attacker.
Marque of Caine (2019)
Riordan surveyed the scene again. Knowing that it could not be other than perfect made it seem less remarkable, much in the way a constructed vista in a theme park could never quite compare with a less perfect one discovered in nature. This was merely a technological achievement, and the price of its perpetual perfection was its inability to inspire a sense of grandeur.
Marque of Caine (2019)
And over the many months that followed, as Caine crept through both terrestrial and alien undergrowth on missions to reclaim some of the autonomy humanity had lost, he learned and relearned the prime lesson in common to all the shocks:
That all assumptions, like all plans, or never more than a second away from a catastrophic collision with reality.
Marque of Caine (2019)