The one thing I never counted on was having luck on my side. It was generally simpler that way. — Alastair Reynolds

Evolution doesn’t greatly care about what happens to creatures once they’ve passed on their genetic heritage.

The poor didn’t have them and so the rich flaunted them, the larger and more conspicuous the better.

Who was it who said that a wise man speaks when he has something to say, but a fool speaks because he must?