Fred Kiesche

“Conflict” (eris) appears at the start of Hesiod’s Works and Days, a didactic poem about rural life from the same era as The Iliad. Hesiod’s narrator declares that there are two types of conflict, one bad and one good. Bad conflict causes war and destroys communities, while good conflict motivates people to outdo their neighbors. When one potter competes with another, everyone wins. Even the less successful artisan ends up with a better piece of work.”
― Homer, The Iliad

“Tonight the controls of the Big Eye belonged to a man who had once been a barber in San Antonio and Pecos, Texas, himself no astronomer, because nobody in their right mind would let an astronomer touch the controls of one of the most powerful telescopes on earth.”
― Richard Preston, First Light: The Search for the Edge of the Universe

“In the final book, Achilles treats the suppliant Priam with mercy, and allows for a brief cessation of fighting to enable the dignified burial of his enemy Hector. The limitless wrath of Achilles can end only once he recognizes that no absolute, permanent victory is ever possible. Everyone must bear unbearable losses, for which no compensation could ever be enough. In the end, we all lose. Our best hope is to accept partial, temporary limits on conflict, accepting human companionship and community as our only, always inadequate compensation, for the pervasive experience of loss.”
― Homer, The Iliad

“The generic form of this problem is widespread in SF, and very hard to avoid. With rare exceptions, if a story gimmick is something that could plausibly grow out of the present, then it and its consequences can’t reasonably be presented as a surprise in the story.”
― Vernor Vinge, The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge