Reincarnation is a story we tell; then in the end it's the story itself that is the reincarnation.

Habits begin to form at the very first repetition. After that there is a tropism toward repetition, for the patterns involved are defenses , bulwarks against time and despair.

Every moment an epiphany arrives and cleaves the mountain asunder

Below the 40th latitude there is no law; below the 50th no god; below the 60th no common sense and below the 70th no intelligence whatsoever.

The invisible hand never picks up the check.

Humans were still not only the cheapest robots around, but also, for many tasks, the only robots that could do the job. They were self-reproducing robots too. They showed up and worked generation after generation; give them 3000 calories a day and a few amenities, a little time off, and a strong jolt of fear, and you could work them at almost anything. Give them some ameliorative drugs and you had a working class, reified and coglike.

You can't choose your childhood, it's just what happens to you. But after that you choose. And that's really what (makes you).