Mandi

“There's a strange contradiction revealed by the naivete and kindness demonstrated by humanity when faced with the universe: On Earth, humankind can step onto another continent, and without a though, destroy the kindred civilizations found there through warfare and disease. But when they gaze up at the stars, they turn sentimental and believe that if extraterrestrial intelligences exist, they must be civilizations bound by universal, noble, moral constraints, as if cherishing and loving different forms of life are parts of a self-evident universal code of conduct.”
― Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

“I do not hold life dear enough to be afraid of death.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

“I now wonder whether what I felt was the love of friendship, in which like loves like and wants only the other's good, or love of concupiscence, in which one wants one's own good and the lacking wants only what completes it.”
― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

“Polen said, 'Let me hear from you sometimes.'
The words were dull thumps. They meant nothing. Casey knew that. Polen knew that. Everyone knew that. But words were meant to hide emotion and when they failed, humanity loyally maintained the pretense.”
― Isaac Asimov