Jack Allison

“All my young life I had lived on an invisible cushion of civilization. The struggles and designs of thousands of years of history had brought me to this pinnacle. I had had to exhibit only the tiniest minima of self-discipline to inherit the place my family had planned for me: the life of a privileged Forerunner, the very notion of which I found so restraining.”
― Greg Bear, Halo: Cryptum (Forerunner Saga, #1)

“When constructs were first developed, they were originally supposed to have a pre-sentient level of intelligence, like the dumber variety of bot. But you can’t put something as dumb as a hauler bot in charge of security for anything without spending even more money for expensive company-employed human supervisors. So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.”
― Martha Wells, Artificial Condition

“That should have made him an anxious, stewing pot of nerves. Instead he tipped his head back, sun warm on his skin, and acknowledged that while he didn’t feel great, someday he would feel great again. For today, that was enough.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth

“The crocodilian was a massive thing, the sort of creature that simply had no business existing on the second floor of a domestic house.”
― Dan Abnett, Legion