Sea of Rust (Sea of Rust, #1)

by C. Robert Cargill

Anger is nothing more than justification for bad behavior. And I have no time for bad behavior. Only survival. And brief moments like this when I try to see if I can find the magic in a flash of green refracted light as the sun hides behind the curve of the earth.

The one truth you need to know about the end of a machine is that the closer they are to death, the more they act like people. And you could never trust people.

Intelligence, consciousness, and awareness were not contained in reflexes or reactions, but rather defined by the ability to violate one’s own programming. Every living thing has programming of some sort—whether to eat, drink, sleep, or procreate—and the ability to decide not to do those things when biology demanded is the core definition of intelligence. Higher intelligence was then defined as the ability to defy said programming for reasons other than safety or comfort.

There’s nothing quite so demoralizing as someone who knows you trying to kill you.

Existing is the whole point of existence. There’s nothing else to it. No goalpost. No finish line. No final notice that tells you what purpose you really served while you were here. When you stop fighting to exist, you may as well not.

Great revolutionaries are never born of kings; they have to let others believe that they aren’t bound to the confines of their creation.

It’s an odd moment the first time you really understand someone, when all of their foibles, eccentricities, and ticks cease to be chaos, and coalesce into something wholly logical.

Emotional creatures hide the truth behind justification because they can’t face it. They don’t want to have to feel it.”

Ethics are worthless in a meaningless universe.”