“Tycoon had a peddler's talent for using words to redefine reality.”

“So much technology, so little talent.”

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

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

“They had been at the center of something vast, but as usual with the affairs of the Powers, no one knew quite what had happened, nor the result of the strivings."A Fire Upon the Deep”

“Ravna became a librarian. "The ultimate dilettante!" Lynne had teased.”

“[He] was an insect wandering in the cathedral his mind had become.”