Daniel Abraham on Mind

"“I don’t think he sees it that way,” Pa said. And then, “But I think he’s putting a lot of effort into not seeing it that way."

"“I’m not a traitor,” Bobbie said to her reflection in the mirror. Mirror Bobbie looked unconvinced."

"Human brains needed an answer, even if they had to make up something they knew was bullshit."

"That was somewhere between a guess and a metaphor, but it helped her to think about it."

"There were a lot of holes in that logic that he carefully avoided thinking about."

"You think you know what I am, she thought, but all you’ve got is stories."

"Insects buzzed about, still the best-designed pollinating system there was. Technology did a lot of things well, but evolution had it beat when it came to environmental systems."

"We keep acting without thinking and you think the solution is to do it one more time. You have allied yourself with stupid, violent men, and you are trying to convince yourself that being stupid and violent will work. That makes you stupid too. I will never help you. I’ll fight you now."

"“I’m getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, sacrificing an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised part of the ship. I was unconscious at the time, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it."

"All of them do what they think is right, and tell themselves that they’re moral people with the strength to do the necessary things, however terrible they seem at the time. Every atrocity that has been done to us had someone behind it who thought what they did was justified. And here I am. A moral person with the strength to do this. Because it’s justified."