“You clutch your comfortable excuses, saying, Someday I'll be brave, it won't take a lot, just give me one more chance and this time I'll grab it. .”

“If you agree to work for us, half the time you won't know the purpose of your duties . . . and when we do explain, we might not be telling the truth. But that's the real world, folks . . .”

“Given time, a ship's crew will attach sexual innuendo to anything. It makes their jobs more exciting.”

“Don't be such a party-pooper, missy --when you're well and truly screwed, either you just sit pissing yourself or you invent some reason to hope.”

“What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?”

“Everyone's life is a mess. Everyone's. We all make mistakes . . . and not just little slip-ups. Major mistakes that hurt us and other people.”

“That's the first rule of command; be consistent! You can be sadistic, you can be lazy, you can be stupid, but if you're consistent the crew will still let you sit in when they play dominoes.”