Tom

“In 2081, the individual human in war will no longer be the hero of romantic history, but only a shivering, naked hostage to fortune: a victim. The research that first develops human-level robots, whether or not they are furnished with bodies in human shape, will be funded primarily by the military. As we already see in the development of cruise missiles, human warriors are being replaced by machines. Ultimately the glamorous figure of the wartime fighter-pilot will give way to the robot: able to withstand thousands of gravities of acceleration while the human can withstand only ten; needing no complicated life-support system; far tougher than fragile human flesh in surviving radiation; knowing no fatigue; never subject to doubt, despair, or pangs of conscience; merciless.”
― Gerald K. O'Neill

“You should not desire, he knows, the death of any human creature. Death is your prince, you are not his patron; when you think he is engaged somewhere, he will batter down your door, walks in and wipes his boots on you.”
― Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

“…but it was Mamdali who brought together the two things that were going on, the grief and the necessity of facing it, and blended them into a mood which gave due regard to each, the old Iranian acceptance of fate. ‘Nothing lasts,’ he said. ‘Neither this Garden, nor ourselves, nor anything else. God wishes it.’” - pg. 213”
― Terence O'Donnell, Garden of the Brave in War: Recollections of Iran

“No. You can’t understand. Because you’re reading the last chapter of something without having read the first chapter. You’re a little guy, Bode. Kids always think they’re coming into a story at the beginning, when they’re usually coming in at the end.”
― Joe Hill, Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft