{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/it-was-the",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/it-was-the.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/it-was-the.md",
  "id": "d27b715e-a515-4fac-9cbf-3b9c7611f1b8",
  "slug": "it-was-the",
  "text": "It was the wrong approach. But it was the only way we—they—could see at the time. So we mustn’t mock them for their mistakes. In two hundred years, someone will be just as quick to mock us for ours, if we’re not careful.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Alastair Reynolds",
    "slug": "alastair-reynolds",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Beyond the Aquila Rift",
    "slug": "beyond-the-aquila-rift",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": 735,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "history",
      "slug": "history",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history"
    },
    {
      "name": "mistakes",
      "slug": "mistakes",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Beyond_the_Aquila_Rift_(2016)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:37",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "203c211b-ac0c-475e-be89-5fa5a648c12c",
      "slug": "the-universe-always",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/the-universe-always",
      "text": "The universe always feels old, though. That’s a universal truth, a universal fact of life. It felt old for her, already cobwebbed by history. Hard for us to grasp, I know. Human civilisation, it’s just the last scratch on the last scratch on the last scratch, on the last layer of everything. We’re noise. Dirt. We haven’t begun to leave a trace.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 695,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "the universe",
          "slug": "the-universe",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe"
        },
        {
          "name": "civilization",
          "slug": "civilization",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Beyond_the_Aquila_Rift_(2016)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:37"
    }
  ]
}