The Engines of God (The Academy, #1)

by Jack McDevitt

The Poles still hate the Russians, the Arabs hate the Jews, the People of Christ hate everybody. It’s as if we’ve learned nothing.”

One might argue that these results (combined with our own failure to respond to deteriorating conditions on Earth) suggest that what we have really learned is that intelligence is rarer than we thought. There is some reason to suppose it has yet to evolve. Anywhere.

“If they’re advanced, they’re rational. Unprovoked hostility is irrational. And if they’re not advanced, we don’t have to worry about their hostility.”