“Intelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change.”

“Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.”

“I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.”

“The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never guess. From the inside, how can you?”

“Here we begin frank speculation. And since we are speculating, we'll use those powerful pseudo-laws, the Principles of Mediocrity and Minimal Assumption.”

“Sometimes the biggest disasters aren't noticed at all - no one's around to write horror stories.”

“One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability.”