Consider Phlebas Quotes
"If it could get the Mind to safety, the factory vessel thought it would have done well."
"Nevertheless, there was another reason—the real reason—the dockyard mother didn’t give its warship child a name; it thought there was something else it lacked: hope."
"The ship did all it could to avoid combat; it kept well away from the routes enemy craft would probably use."
"Scattered in a pattern around it, an instant before the ship itself was blown into plasma, most of the thousands of exploding warheads formed an outrushing sphere of radiation through which any escape seemed impossible."
"In the darkness of the cell, in its stink and warmth, while the sweat ran over his brows and tightly closed eyes and his trance went on and on, one part of his mind tried to accustom him to the idea of his own death."
"Empathize with stupidity and you’re halfway to thinking like an idiot."
"The rest have gone to eat. I’ll see you in the mess if you’re ready in time. Just follow your nose."
"The only thing they believed without proof was that there was a purpose to life, that there was something which was translated in most languages as 'God,' and that that God wanted a better existence for His creations."
"For some reason the Mind found this worrying."
"It was the truest possible copy its limited scale was theoretically capable of providing, and it was still sentient; conscious by even the most rigorous of standards."
"It wasn’t its real self. It was a crude, abstracted copy of itself, the mere ground plan for the full labyrinthine complexity of its true personality."
"It had to start thinking like Kraiklyn again; he closed his eyes."
"Patterns, images, the telling analogy... make the ill work to good. Just think..."
"It was unlikely to have very much time either to hide or to arm."
"Better than nothing, though. Better still to have problems than to let death eradicate them all."
"In base 10 that number would be a 1 followed by twenty-seven zeros, and even that vast figure was only a fraction of the capacity of the Mind."
"The Culture would treat the destruction of the craft’s consciousness as murder."
"People still die in Damage, and not just the Lives, either, or the Players."
"The Ishlorsinami... always officiated at Damage games because hardly anybody else could be trusted."
"I wouldn't kid you about it, Yalson," Horza assured her. "Horza is alive and well, and not very far away."
"You see, I've decided that we need to cut down on the numbers on board, and you just aren't needed right now."
"I just met our friend Mr. Gobuchul in Evanauth, and he's keen to rejoin."
"I've just re-hired one of our ex-members, and that does alter the plans a bit."
"I wouldn't dream of leaving without making sure everything was settled here first."
"We're getting Horza Gobuchul back from the dead, so I decided we didn't need her."
"No, my dear, I just met our friend Mr. Gobuchul in Evanauth, and he's keen to rejoin."
"I have finished. I'm just tidying everything away."
"Well, just traffic control, I suppose, like when we came in."
"Right at the appointed hour the unseen, unnamed, very much still militarized General Systems Vehicle which was somewhere in the vicinity of the Vavatch planetary system started its bombardment."
"The Culture had not wasted its lesson to the Idirans and the rest of the galactic community."
"Vavatch, that fourteen-million-kilometer hoop, was starting to uncoil."
"They sought to take the unfairness out of existence, to remove the mistakes in the transmitted message of life."
"We haven’t evolved . . . we’ve changed a lot, changed ourselves a lot, but we haven’t evolved at all since we were running around killing ourselves."
"The longer the war went on, the more likely it was."
"Every now and again, though, she went back to that thought, and knew that each was exactly as important as the other."
"Imagine a vast and glittering ocean seen from a great height."
"Black holes show as thin and twisting waterspouts from clouds to sea; supernovae as long lightning flashes in the overcast."
"The Minds on board, and the small crew of humans each vessel carried, hadn't been told why they were blasting empty space with expensive warheads."
"You could easily form the impression that they considered being asked to carry out any other sort something of an insult."
"The entire effect of this operation would be to produce a few spectacular flashes and flares and a scattering of radiation shells and wide-band signals before the Idirans cleared up the debris."
"He was about to offer Balveda something to drink, but somehow, because that was what Kraiklyn had done with him, it didn’t seem the right thing to do."
"It’s worth a try," Horza said. "Better get him upright, if we want to pour the stuff down his throat."
"The brave belong where they decide." Some harshness entered the Idiran’s voice.
"Don’t worry," the Changer said, nodding at Yalson, "I’ll find it."
"It’s an alarm!" the drone’s voice shouted from the two helmets. "I can hear it!"
"It could be coming at fifty meters a second; have you any idea how long it takes to get one of these things moving?"
"Sorry, Horza, but I can get it round that bend and out of the way. You get out now. Leave me."
"Get out!" Horza said, arriving at the door where the two women were, one firing, one crouched down, risking the occasional look out.
"The Mind was out of the train, starting to turn and race off."
"I’m going to die," she thought, and was almost more surprised than terrified.
"What a fool," Horza said, "What a bloody... stupid... fool."
"Bound to be a few casualties," the drone muttered.