Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3)

by James S.A. Corey

Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn’t work that way, and Anna suspected the universe didn’t either.

It was a lesson he’d never forgotten. That humans only have so much emotional energy. No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end.

Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she’ll be haunted by what might be behind it.

Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”

Nothing ever killed more people than being afraid to look like a sissy.”

Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It’s attractive because it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s almost always available as an option. When you can’t think of a good rebuttal for your opponent’s argument, you can always punch them in the face.

She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk.