Quotes from Andrew Mayne

Systems can go laterally through space. Others move linearly through time.

Get the motherfucker. Stay the hell away from him, but go get him. It's what you do now. And if

I can see the messy, haphazard collection of instructions that make up a human life. While some would argue that the fact that this almost random pattern is proof of a miracle, I'd point out that by that logic, every living thing that manages to be born is a miracle—and if we're all miracles, then nobody is, because the word has lost its meaning. Life works or it doesn't.

When Dad was alive, the world was filled with color. Afterward, color only existed as a number on a list of hues. Everything felt muted.

Thank you. Um . . . how does billing work?" "This one is on me because you're fighting the good fight. Next time I send Julian a fat invoice

I'm not gonna let them go easy on me knowing he's out there hurting some other kid. How can a decent person live with that?" Indeed. Even a guy like Artice, who's caused his share of mayhem, sees that.

my animal brain, my early warning system that listens for noises and looks for the signs of predators,

Tell me something so that when you look your god in the eye, you can convince yourself you're a good man.

The President?" "No. Somebody with real power.

Neuroscientists say they can predict an action our mind has decided to take moments before our conscious mind has even decided what we think we're going to do. The function of consciousness, they argue, isn't to make decisions, but to rationalize them after the fact.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE DEED The title to 17658 Wimbledon has had four owners since it was built. From

People who share last names tend to be related and get together more often for meals and are less guarded about eating off one another's plates and exchanging germs. This creates pockets of infection over weekends that soon extend to schools and work. The presence of convention centers added to the calculation.

The machines won, sister. We're just in denial.

Almost five hundred years ago, John Wilkins, a philosopher and bishop, pushed heavily for the written language to adopt an upside-down exclamation point at the end of a sentence to indicate irony. Think of how many online feuds that could have prevented.

It's comforting to blame the misfortune of others on their own actions. It's also wrong.

I sometimes joke that I don't need children to look after me when I get older, because I'll have Amazon Prime.

There are two. In the first, three years ago, a self-proclaimed grizzly expert was killed. I'd personally rule that a suicide.

This is why I laugh at the notion of reconciling faith and science. Science is based on the premise that logic and reason can tell us the true nature of reality. Religion is based on the idea that when logic and reason don't support a predetermined view of reality, they are at fault.

Even testing a theory and reaching an expected conclusion doesn't really "prove" it in the sense that people think. It only changes the degree of certainty.

Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature. Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years It has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws could be sustained under the existing legal framework if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger society. Civilized Sciences Foundation, CSF Congressional Report 1975

This is one of those edge cases where your instructors tell you to use your best judgment. Which is a phrase that you learn later actually means, We're going to blame you no matter what if things go badly.

While legal lines sharply define what can and cannot be done, our personal sense of right and wrong doesn't necessarily hew so closely to them.

Although my specialty is computational biology, I know enough human anatomy to suspect that the bone Eddie is chewing on isn't from something that was on a kitchen table or wandered into the backyard after getting hit by a car.

remember how much I hate to