3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years (The Time Traveler's Passport)

by John Scalzi

The butterfly effect is correct, but the butterfly is in another reality entirely.

“History” stops being accurate the moment you observe it.

from a philosophical point of view, anything that happened in that reality was meant to happen in that reality, otherwise it would not have happened, or could not have happened.

The ones who go back to kill Hitler, whether as an infant or in his artist days in Vienna, frequently forget that in the eyes of those alive at the time, they are not the savior of history, merely a baby killer or a common murderer, and spend most of their historical sojourn in custody or fleeing from it.