“Alarm clocks were invented by fork-tongued devils disguised as gremlins wearing snake masks.”

“It's time to grow uo. You might want some showdown like in the storybooks, but this is not a storybook. This is war. And I can tell you, as someone who watched our families blown out an air lock with my own eyes, war doesn't have a happy ending. Not for anyone.”

“We do matter. To believe that our lives are meaningful is the essence of faith. We are not as large, or as bright, or as eternal as the stars, but we carry humankind's message of love across the galaxy. We are the first. We are the world makers. Our nourishment is hope. Like the tender reed shaking in the wind, we will reach up to a new sun.”

“There is a design working behind the curtain of the stars, and we are fulfilling it, drawn toward the future on the tide of time, toward our destiny as the first settlers of a new world."The room was still. He has them, she thought.”

“Everything about everything is obvious to everyone.”

“Smiles that are meant to hide something never last very long, especially when the smile is hiding guilt (pg. 183).”

“Trust isn't a black and white thing... Everyone has the capacity to let you down at one time or another... [but] if you can't trust, you can't love (pg. 215).”