Yes, sir, thank you, sir, and I wouldn’t trust me one little inch, sir. I knows a bad one when I sees them. I have a mirror.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction, not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

People wanted the world to be a story, because stories had to sound right and they had to make sense. People wanted the world to make sense.

"And what would humans be without love?" Rare, said Death.

The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.

Why bother with a cunning plan when a simple one will do?

[...] the awesome splendor of the universe is much easier to deal with if you think of it as a series of small chunks.