“Another irritating thing about Naqsans was their habit of solemnly repeating the obvious. In that respect they were almost as bad as humans.”

“Volyova did not like planets at the best of times, and gas giants struck her as an unreasonable affront to human scale and frailty. In that respect, they were almost as bad as stars.”

“The most irritating thing about cliches, I decided, was how frequently they were true.”

“As art is a habit with reference to things to be done, so is science a habit in respect to things to be known.”

“At some point, being angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning yourself without thinking about it.”

“He was not accustomed to thinking about these things so bluntly, but the facts were as obvious as they were painful.”

“Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to.”

“It is a sad thing to want for happiness, but it is a terrible thing to see another groping about blindly for it, when it is almost within the grasp.”

“Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.”

“Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another.”