Leandro

“They never actually have fire inside them, unless they get a case of blowback.” “What happens then?” “You’re scraping dragon off the scenery,” said Lady Ramkin cheerfully. “I’m afraid they’re not very well-designed creatures, dragons.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“Obviously,” said God, “it is a seat.” “It is not,” said the Wonk. “There’s no way.” “It is a seat,” God asserted calmly. The Wonk tried to sit on it, ending up propped at a weird angle, stooped forwards like a bird roosting in an eave. “Why would anybody make a seat like this? Is this some weird art nouveau fashion thing?” “It is so that nobody can rest on it,” God said simply. “Well, they damn well nailed that part of it.” The Wonk jumped up. “What’s this got to do with anything?” “It is a trivial illustration of the philosophy espoused by those who gave me my priorities,” God said. “Exhibit A is a product of a decision that the good, hardworking people of the world should not see the indigent and the transient sleeping on their benches, in their rail stations, in their public spaces. Hence the benches were replaced by something that nobody, wanted or unwanted, could comfortably use, to ensure that those few who might have used them improperly could not. It is a small thing, but it is indicative of a mind-set. A pattern of thought repeated at every level. No work because a robot took your job? Do you think such humans were ‘given a chance to be themselves’ or just judged to be idle by the minds behind Exhibit A?”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Service Model

“Information is like water—without it you won’t live long, too much and you’ll drown. And there’s a difference between truth and information. Even correct information is not the same as truth—truth does not mislead—correct information bereft of context can be more dangerous than a lie.”
― Mark Lawrence, The Book That Held Her Heart

“It was a dining room, containing the kind of table where the people at the other end are in a different time zone. One end had been colonized by silver candlesticks.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!