James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War (The Expanse Book 2)

Humans can be better than they are, so let’s do that. — 111: 1443-1443
“I’ve never met anyone else in my life who cared more about other people’s welfare, and less about their feelings,” she said. “But at least he’ll make sure everyone is well fed before he tells them all the many things they did wrong.” — 113: 1469-1471

It was shocking to realize how much of investigation was just brute-force solutions. Going through endless lists looking for one thing that doesn’t fit. — 128: 1855-1856
“‘Be angry at the sun for setting if these things anger you.’ A poet named Jeffers said that.” — 266: 3862-3863
“Don’t think about the odds,” Bobbie said. “Think about the stakes. Think how much we lose if we take the risk and it goes wrong.” — 406: 5887-5888

“When the crisis comes, we all pull together naturally. It’s easy then. It’s when things drag on too long that we have to make the effort. We need to make sure everyone sees we’re all in this together.” — 15: 182-183
printed volume of Marcus Aurelius that had belonged to his grandmother. The Meditations were the private thoughts of a person with terrible power—an — 98: 1334-1335
It was a bad move, and I expect we’ll pay for it. But since we’ve done it, we should do the hell out of it. Better to be decisive and wrong than to let them see us wobble.” — 269: 3721-3723
Even if it didn’t work, it was a good thing to try. And maybe it did. Maybe those saved someone, and if they did, that’s more important than making sure you get to know about it.” — 510: 7047-7048
“Politics is the art of the possible, Captain Pa. When you play at our level, grudges cost lives.” — 537: 7411-7411
History, she thought, was perhaps better considered as a great improvisation. A thinking-through of some immense, generations-long thought. Or daydream. — 559: 7719-7720

The question wasn’t whether moving psychoactive alien seedpods between worlds was a good idea so much as whether someone was going to lose face in front of a committee meeting. Thus were the great decisions of history made. — : 1691-1692
Nothing degraded morale like the sense that the potential for excellence was being denied. — : 6475-6476

When two people get in a fight, and only one has a gun and the will to use it? That’s a short damned fight. Only it wasn’t Bobbie’s voice that said it this time. It was Amos’. A few decades flying the same ship together had built little versions of her family in her head. Made some part of them a part of her, even when she didn’t particularly want them to be. Even when the little mirrors of them only told her that their conversation wasn’t finished. — 89: 1280-1283
Laypeople didn’t understand how much scientific literature was about nuance and shared understanding. — 266: 3893-3894
“I understand,” she lied. “I do.” — 406: 5929-5930

“They don’t hate us,” Bobbie said, her voice tired. “They’re afraid of us.” “Then why do they act like they hate us?” David’s father said with something like triumph. “Because that’s what fear looks like when it needs someplace to go.” — 48: 590-591