Dana

“He had no name for it in the language of Ka; there was no name for it because he was the first Crow ever to feel it within him. Pity for them in the awful complications of the lives they built for themselves, laboring as helplessly and ceaselessly as bees building their combs, but their combs held no honey, he thought now. Useless, useless, and worse than useless, needless: the labor of their lives, the battles and deaths, and all their own doing. He lifted his wings to fly, to fly from this pity, but he could not; folded them in disorder; bowed with open mouth in pity.
If only he had not gone into Ymr. For out of Ymr he had brought pity into Ka, and now could never get it out.”
― John Crowley, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr

“There's no such thing as the life you're supposed to have.”
― Elan Mastai, All Our Wrong Todays

“Time could crawl, it could fly, it could amble. Time was a slippery thing.”
― Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“That's what Humans are, too, don't forget. People who poison each other, then disclaim all responsibility.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Adulthood Rites