Peter F. Hamilton

The Reality Dysfunction

• Joshua was the most dynamic lover she had ever known. Gentle and domineering; it was a lethal combination. If only he wasn't quite so ruthlessly mechanical about it. A little too much of his pleasure had come from seeing her lose all control. But then that was Joshua; unwilling to share… Joshua didn't trust people.
  • musings of Ione, Lord of Ruin and autocrat of Tranquility habitat

The Neutronium Alchemist

• You cannot impose ideologies on people who do not embrace it wholeheartedly.
  • Endron, systems specialist of the Far Realm

• The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves.
  • Athene, mother of Syrinx, resident of Eden habitat

The Naked God

• Here there was only yourself; a soul buried alive. Nothing to comfort you but your own life. Screaming from the pain of the blows which battered him down might have stopped, but the internal scream of self-loathing could never cease.
  • as the ghost Dariat lies immobile in a wispy limbo

• Like men in his position throughout history, Kingsley Pryor did nothing as events swept him to their conclusion; simply waiting and praying that a magical third option would spring from nowhere.

• Faith, Quinn mused, was a strange power. They had committed their lives to the sect, never questioning its gospels. Yet in all of that time, they had the reassurance of routine… The bedrock of every religion, that your God is a promise, never to be encountered in this life, this universe.
  • Quin Dexter of the Lightbringer Sect on faith

Pandora's Star

• I believe that intelligence and rationality will always be primary no matter what shape sentient creatures take. To not think that would be to doubt the value of life itself.
  • Tochee

Judas Unchained

• But to have dreamed the dream is to have flown above the mountains so high in all but deed.
  • The Agent

• Mockery; the righteousness of fools everywhere.
  • The Agent