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People didn’t always follow their best interests. Human beings were distressingly bad at risk analysis, lousy with hidden motivations and neuroses, anything but the clean rational actors that economists or diplomats wanted so desperately to believe in, and diplomats had to go by capabilities, not intentions.

— Charles Stross Iron Sunrise (2004)

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More quotes by Charles Stross

Human consciousness isn’t optimized for anything, except maybe helping feral hominids survive in the wild.

Rule 34 (2011)

No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy, and time is the ultimate opponent.

Rule 34 (2011)

Never trust a man who thinks his religion gives him all the answers.

Halting State (2007)

In my experience, the best way to deal with such people is to politely agree with everything they say, then ignore them.

Glasshouse (2006)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sane employee in possession of his wits must be in want of a good manager.

The Fuller Memorandum (2010)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Stross (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.