The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)

by Becky Chambers

Harmagians had money. Aeluons had firepower. Aandrisks had diplomacy. Humans had arguments.

Acting all sanctimonious while spouting bad info was a terrible way to win a debate, but a great way to piss people off.

In many ways, the idea of a shared stock of genes drifting through the galaxy is far easier to accept than the daunting notion that none of us may ever have the intellectual capacity to understand how life truly works.

The idea that a loss of potential was somehow worse than a loss of achievement and knowledge was something she had never been able to wrap her brain around.

Such a quintessentially Human thing, to express sorrow through apology.

“We cannot blame ourselves for the wars our parents start. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is walk away.”

The truth is, Rosemary, that you are capable of anything. Good or bad. You always have been, and you always will be. Given the right push, you, too, could do horrible things. That darkness exists within all of us.

The people we remember are the ones who decided how our maps should be drawn. Nobody remembers who built the roads.”