“Please, sir.” Tisarwat seemed not to have heard either of them. “We can’t leave things the way they are, and I have an idea.” That got the translator’s full attention. She looked up from the game, frowned intently at Tisarwat. “What’s it like? Does it hurt?” Tisarwat only blinked at her. “Sometimes I think I might like to get an idea, but then it occurs to me that it’s exactly the sort of thing Dlique would do.”

“Any attempt to list the ten best science fiction novels is doomed to failure.”

“I think a lot of times our culture has an attitude toward art and the production of art that separates artists from the rest of us, like making art or music or painting or whatever is some magical thing that you have to be inspired to do, and special people do it.”

“What, after all, was the point of civilization if not the well-being of citizens?”

“Libraries are a tremendous and valuable resource, and I'm note sure it's possible to have too many of them.”

“The point is, there is no point. Choose your own!”

“Good necessitates evil and the two sides of that disk are not always clearly marked.”

“You are so civilized. So polite. So brave coming here alone when you know no one here would dare to touch you. So easy to be all those things, when all the power is on your side”

“The gender thing is a giveaway, though. Only a Radchaai would misgender people the way you do."I'd guessed wrong. "I can't see under your clothes. And even if I could, that's not always a reliable indicator.”

“It all goes aroundIt all goes aroundThe planet goes around the sunIt all goes aroundMy mother said it all goes aroundIt all goes aroundThe ship goes around the station”

“...if anyone who speaks up to criticise something obviously evil is punished merely for speaking, civilisation will be in a bad way.”