Justin James

“Why does the third of the three brothers, who shares his food with the old woman in the wood, go on to become king of the country? Why does James Bond manage to disarm the nuclear bomb a few seconds before it goes off rather than, as it were, a few seconds afterwards? Because a universe where that did not happen would be a dark and hostile place. Let there be goblin hordes, let there be terrible environmental threats, let there be giant mutated slugs if you really must, but let there also be hope. It may be a grim, thin hope, an Arthurian sword at sunset, but let us know that we do not live in vain.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction

“If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are.”
― Jean-Luc Picard

“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.”
― Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

“The road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think.”
― Jean-Luc Picard