The Galaxy, and the Ground Within Quotes

“war was nothing more than an argument in which no one had landed on a better solution than killing each other.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept a lesser evil for the sake of it being lesser.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Because I didn’t want to. And when it comes to a person’s body, that is all the reason there ever needs to be. Doesn’t matter if it’s a decision about a new pair of legs or how you like to trim your claws or—’ she gave Pei a piercing look ‘—what to do about an egg. I didn’t want to. You don’t want to. That’s it.’

‘But—’ Pei started.

Speaker leaned forward. ‘That. Is all. It ever needs to be.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“He’d been taught that if one person had more than another, feeling guilty about it was the least productive reaction. The only proper way to approach such inequities was to figure out how best to wield them, so as to bring others up to where you stood.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“This one choice didn't answer everything for her, not even close. How could it? Life was never a matter of one decision alone. Life was just a bunch of tiny steps, one after another, each a conclusion that lead to a dozen questions more.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“I can't always speak my mind, not if I want to get the things I need or go places I need to go. Everything I do, every word I say, is calculated to make people comfortable. To make them respect me. None of it is a lie, but it is an act, and it's one that gets very, very tiring.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“I'm not telling you that everything will be all right,' he said. I'm telling you I understand how horrible it feels to be able to do nothing.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Just because there’s no one living on a planet does not mean it’s yours for the taking. Do you not see how dangerous that mindset is? Do you not think that treating the galaxy as if it is something to be endlessly used will always, always end in tragedy?”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“The cheap knick-knack in his hands now carried with it a sentiment of the present he would cherish, and a reminder of the past he would always loathe. Only the finest art could accomplish both those things at once.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“I was operating on the hope that such things wouldn’t matter when the sky is falling apart.’ ‘Such things shouldn’t matter at all, regardless of what the sky is doing.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“People – a group comprised of every sapient species, organic or otherwise – were chaos, but chaos was good. Chaos was the only sensible conclusion. There was no law that was just in every situation, no blanket rule that could apply to everyone, no explanation that accounted for every component. This did not mean that laws and rules were not helpful, or that explanations should not be sought, but rather that there should be no fear in changing them as needed, for nothing in the universe ever held still.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“He knew there would never be a point in his life in which he knew everything there was to know, and while part of him despaired at the puzzle that would never be solved, the rest of him embraced this truth fully, for what satisfaction could there be in having nothing else to ask?”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Roveg forgave her a few of the exclamation points. Not all of them, but a few.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“The gendered expectations of parenting were dissolving, but even though women could be found working in creches now, there was still an enormous difference between the person who produced an egg and the person who cared for the little being that crawled out of it.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“There was only one absolute in the universe, Roveg was (relatively) sure of, and that was the fact that there were no absolutes”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Reflexes kept a person safe, but they could also make you stupid.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Can you explain being ticklish to me?’ he asked. ‘I have never understood the concept.’ ‘Yeah, it’s—’ Pei started to answer authoritatively, but got no further than that. How did you explain being ticklish? Speaker stared at the top of her cockpit, eyes narrow with thought. ‘I … have no idea how to describe what it feels like.’ ‘It’s like …’ Ouloo frowned. ‘Hmm.’ ‘Is it painful?’ Roveg asked. ‘No,’ Speaker said slowly. ‘It’s not.’ ‘But you don’t like it?’ Roveg said. ‘I don’t like it,’ Pei said. ‘I mean,’ Ouloo said, ‘I don’t mind it.’ ‘It’s not my favourite, but it’s not the worst,’ Speaker said. Roveg looked around the group with his hard-shelled face. ‘Thank you, this has been incredibly illuminating,’ he said.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“No, it’s not that. Humans need a … oh, what is it … it’s something with their stomachs. An enzyme, I think. For digesting milk. Only some Humans produce it naturally. But here’s the thing: they’re all so fucking bonkers for cheese that they’ll ingest a dose of the enzymes beforehand so that they can eat it.’ ‘That seems a bit extreme,’ Roveg said. ‘Have you eaten it?’ Tupo asked. ‘Not if my life depended on it,’ Pei said. ‘How is it that their milk makes them sick?’ Speaker said. ‘That’s got to pose a problem if they can’t feed their young.’ ‘Oh, no, I – stars, I forgot the worst part.’ Pei rubbed her neck with her palm. ‘They don’t make cheese with their own milk. They take it from other animals.’ At that, chaos broke out.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Just because there’s no one living on a planet does not mean it’s yours for the taking. Do you not see how dangerous that mindset is? Do you not think that treating the galaxy as if it is something to be endlessly used will always, always end in tragedy? You think you’ve broken the cycle. You haven’t. You’re in a less violent period of the exact same cycle, and you don’t see it. And the line of what you find to be justifiable cause is going to keep slipping and slipping until you end up right back where you started. You haven’t fixed anything. You put a stamp and a permit and a shiny coat of paint on an idea that has been fundamentally damaged from day one. You engaged in bloody theft and you called it progress, and no matter how much better you think you’ve made things, no matter how good your intentions are, that will always be the root of the GC. You cannot divorce any of what you do from that. Ever.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“it became very fashionable very quickly to perform cultural purity for others, and that fashion became dogma, and dogma became law, and tada! Here we are.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“convenience was morality’s most cunning foe).”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“the thing she enjoyed about gardening was having a garden. She liked imagining it, and she liked sitting in it when it was done. The middle bit of digging and pruning and getting sap on her paws and dirt in her fur and a crick in her back – that, she would happily do without. But you didn’t get a garden if you didn’t do the middle bit, unless you hired somebody else to do it, and then it wasn’t really yours. It would never match the garden in her head, if she did it that way.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“But you can’t fix everything with cake.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Life was fluid, gradient, ever shifting”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“She definitely looked to be the sort who would love a good exclamation point (or twelve).”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“But you’re correct. Our species – no, forgive me, our cultures – aren’t the same at all. Quelin fear outsiders because we use them as scapegoats for the things we fear about ourselves. We bar cultural exchange because change frightens us. Whereas your people . . .’ He looked at her. ‘You fear outsiders because they gave you no choice in the change they forced upon you.’ ‘There’s more to it than that,’ Speaker said. ‘But that’s a piece, yes.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“Emotions left unchecked could so easily metastasise, and she worked hard to never be that personally negligent.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“In traditional Aeluon culture, a mother was not a parent. Parents were men and shon. Parents went to school for it. Parents were the people who actually raised children, not those who had done the easy business of creating them.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

“There was no way of knowing who would need what, and so it was best to carry everything.”
― Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within