In the end, living is defined by dying.

The only thing binding individuals together is ideas. Ideas mutate and spread; they change their hosts as much as their hosts change them.

Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it is fragile. It can be blackened by fear, and superstition. By the year 2050, when the conflict began, the world had fallen upon fearful, superstitious times.

Unable to attribute misfortune to chance, unable to accept their ultimate insignificance within the greater scheme, the people looked for monsters in their midst.

Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.

I try not to be surprised. Surprise is the public face of a mind that has been closed.

... from our vantage point it is now clear that the only thing the population had to fear was fear itself.