Bella smiled. “That’s exactly the right attitude: trust your leaders, but be careful not to trust them too much.”
Source: Pushing Ice (2005), Chapter 27 (p. 397)

“I’m not asking you to open your mind to all manner of nonsense, Doctor, merely to allow for the possibility of things you might previously have dismissed, or failed to give any consideration to whatsoever. Such as the fact that the world was not always this way, and by implication doesn’t have to be this way in the future.”

Alastair Reynolds book Terminal World

Source: Terminal World (2010), Chapter 14 (p. 232)

“Open your story-cube on the way home and ask it to tell you about causality violation. I did once, because I asked the same question you did. Why should I be limited? What right does the universe have to say what I can and can’t do? I’m intelligent. The universe is just a lot of hydrogen and dirt, going through the motions. But in this instance the universe has the final say.”

Alastair Reynolds book House of Suns

Introduction to Part 4 (p. 267)
House of Suns (2008)

“People lived and died and did strange, pointless things to themselves. So did societies, be they city-sized states or galactic empires encompassing thousands of solar systems. Everything came and went, everything was new and bright with promise once and old and worn out later, and everything left a small, diminishing stain on eternity, a mark that time would eventually erase.”

Alastair Reynolds book House of Suns

Source: House of Suns (2008), Chapter 16 (p. 240)

“I had read in the story-cube that the speed of light was a universal limit; that in a thousand years of experimentation—despite any number of false dawns—no one had ever managed to circumvent it. This had made me feel hemmed in and claustrophobic—it was like being told I must never run or skip down the long, dreary corridors of the house, but must walk instead, with my neck straight and my hands held behind my back. I felt affronted, as if the speed of light was a personal assault on my liberty. Why should I not go as fast as I pleased? Why should I not skip and run? But I could no more explain why the speed limit existed than I could explain why two and two did not make five. It was simply the way things were, one of those rules—like the edict not to visit certain parts of the house—that were not to be questioned.”

Alastair Reynolds book House of Suns

Introduction to Part 2 (p. 100)
House of Suns (2008)

“Some people get it. Most people never will.
But that’s art.”

Alastair Reynolds Zima Blue

Source: Short fiction, Zima Blue and Other Stories (2006), Zima Blue (p. 403)

“The old murals came from the heart,” Zima said. “I painted on a huge scale because that was what the subject matter seemed to demand.”

Alastair Reynolds Zima Blue

“It was good work,” I said.
“It was hack work. Huge, loud, demanding, popular, but ultimately soulless. Just because it came from the heart didn’t make it good.”
Zima Blue (p. 395)
Short fiction, Zima Blue and Other Stories (2006)

“Loosen up. I need reverence like I need a skateboard.”

Alastair Reynolds book Angels of Ashes

Angels of Ashes (p. 253)
Short fiction, Zima Blue and Other Stories (2006)

“Could be worse, as they say.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

“That’s the sum story of human history, isn’t it? Could be worse. As if that’s the very best that we can manage.”
Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 53 (p. 527)

“I had work to be getting on with. I’ve always had work to be getting on with. It’s what the universe was put there for: to give me things to do.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 53 (p. 523)

“Humanity is an assemblage of information-processing entities, and in that regard you have potential.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 43 (p. 438)

“I can’t tell you how much happier I’d be meeting a bunch of artificial intelligences if I also happened to have one on my side.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

“Can we drop the ‘artificial intelligence’? It’s a bit like me calling you a meat-based processing system.”
Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter 29 (p. 312)