The Lost Colony (The Long Winter, #3)

by A.G. Riddle

All I can do is make the best decisions I can in the moment and prepare myself to make better decisions in the future. Agonizing about them after the fact accomplishes nothing.

But my vision is clear now. The one thing I didn’t see before was the truth about human nature. This is the life humans want, whether they know it or not—a life where they do something they think matters, something that helps their family, neighbors, and friends, work they take pride in—like that bike you’re making.”

I pause, realizing something. “That’s what’s wrong with us, you know? What we have never seems to be enough. That hunger made us succeed. And I think it might be our undoing.”

There’s a dark side to the hunger of ambition.”

“Those explorers and inventors and entrepreneurs who pushed humanity forward, they were the most celebrated of all of us. They’re the ones whose names are written in the history books. But great success is a disease only those infected with it truly understand. In the wrong kind of minds, once it takes hold, it grows, always wanting more, and when it doesn’t get it, it tortures that person, compelling them to drive forward, to push the boundaries and reach for more. And sometimes the hunger makes them do things they wouldn’t have dreamed of before. Like destroying worlds.”

That is the true human challenge: to have faith that the end is only a beginning we can’t understand.”