Liza

“you can’t fight a tremendous, emotion filled drive with cold mathematics. This man Hilder has invented a name, ‘Wasters.’ Slowly he has built this name up into a gigantic conspiracy; a gang of brutal, profit-seeking wretches raping Earth for their own immediate benefit. “He has accused the government of being riddled with them, the Assembly of being dominated by them, the press of being owned by them. None of this, unfortunately, seems ridiculous to the average man. He knows all too well what selfish men can do to Earth’s resources. He knows what happened to Earth’s oil during the Time of Troubles, for instance, and the way topsoil was ruined. “When a fanner experiences a drought, he doesn’t care that the amount of water lost in space flight isn’t a droplet in a fog as far as Earth’s overall water supply is concerned. Hilder has given him something to blame and that’s the strongest possible consolation for disaster. He isn’t going to give that up for a diet of figures.”
― Isaac Asimov, Robot Dreams

“there is something even higher than the justice which you have been filled with. There is a human impulse known as mercy; a human act known as forgiveness.” “I am not acquainted with those words, partner Elijah.” “I know,” muttered Baley. “I know.”
― Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel

“Precautionary measure. With those words any deaths could be justified. Better to destroy your own people than there be a chance a German soldier might find a loaf of bread.”
― Tom Rob Smith, Child 44

“There is only one road here: the most thorough study of all the details of the Chernobyl disaster, since it is by no means precluded that one of the details of it that is overlooked today will sometime be the main cause of the next calamity or the one after that.”
― Grigori Medvedev, Chernobyl Notebook