“The best means to an end are not always those that appear most direct.”

“The best time to act on this was decades ago. The second best time is now.”

“...where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge.”

“If facts are inconvenient, well, damn those who live and work with facts.”

“In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march.”

“When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”

“Other generations perceived a plethora of swords hanging over their heads. But generally what they feared were shadows, for neither they nor their gods could actually end the world. Fate might reap an individual, a family, or even a whole nation, but not the entire world. Not then. We, in the mid-twenty-first century, are the first to look up at a sword we ourselves forged, and know, with absolute certainty, it is real...”