The attacking piece displaces its victim. The vanquished piece leaves the plane of the board entirely. But it does not, in a higher sense, cease to exist. Robert Charles Wilson More Quotes by Robert Charles Wilson More Quotes From Robert Charles Wilson This would have been less annoying had it been untrue. Robert Charles Wilson untrue has-beens annoying We spent a lot of time discussing cosmology first. I think that was your father's unique way of evaluating people. You can tell a lot about a person, he once said, by the way they look at the stars. Robert Charles Wilson stars unique father To fire a bullet into the heart or brains of one's fellow man even a fellow man striving to do the same to you creates what might be called an unassimilable memory: a memory that floats on daily life the way an oil stain floats on rainwater. Stir the rain barrel, scatter the oil into countless drops, disperse it all you like, but it will not mix; and eventually the slick comes back, as loathsomely intact as it ever was. Robert Charles Wilson rain heart memories Goddamn you," Jacob said. "There's no damnation, Jacob. No Heaven but the forest and no God but the hive. Robert Charles Wilson damnation forests heaven We live in an enlightened age, however, an age that has learned to see and to value other living things as they are, not as we wish them to be. And the long and creditable history of science has taught us, if nothing else, to look carefully before we judge to judge, if we must, based on what we see, not what we would prefer to believe. Robert Charles Wilson taught-us long believe Personally, I don't believe in anything more supernatural than what you read about in the Bible, and I only believe that one day out of seven. Robert Charles Wilson seven one-day believe [There was] only one news channel, overseen by a bland and complexly multicultural board of advisors. It broadcast in fifteen languages and was, as a rule, interesting in none of them. Robert Charles Wilson news boards interesting We'll do what life always does defy expectations. Robert Charles Wilson expectations doe I don't believe money is evil, but it can be terribly corrosive. Robert Charles Wilson dont-believe evil believe It was the kind of experience, Molly said, that would grow calluses on an angel's ass. Robert Charles Wilson ass angel kind The suicidally disgruntled were legion, And their enemies included any and all Americans, Brits, Canadians, Danes, et cetera; or, conversely, all Moslems, dark-skinned people, non-English-speakers, immigrants; all Catholics, fundamentalists, atheists; all liberals, all conservatives...For such people the consummate act of moral clarity was a lynching or a suicide bombing, a fatwa or a pogrom. And they were ascendant now, rising like dark stars over a terminal landscape. Robert Charles Wilson stars atheist suicide One doesn't have to understand in order to look. One has to look, in order to understand. Robert Charles Wilson order looks I understand so very little. But I am not afraid to look: I am a good observer at last. My eyes are open, and I am not afraid. Robert Charles Wilson eye littles looks Promises were like bad checks, easy to write and hard to cash. Robert Charles Wilson cash writing promise I suppose every decade gets the music it deserves. Robert Charles Wilson decades deserve The Dutch at close proximity looked much like Americans, apart from their peculiar uniforms, and so it was their uniforms I fired at, half convinced that I was killing, not human beings, but enemy costumes, which had borne their contents here from a distant land; and if some living man suffered for his enslavement to the uniform, or was penetrated by the bullets aimed at it well, that was unavoidable, and the fault couldn't be placed at my feet. The private charade was not equivalent to Courage, but it enabled a Callousness that served a similar purpose. Robert Charles Wilson land feet men Some pious men may find this truth unorthodox and bitter: But Nature, Chance, and Time ensure survival of the fitter! Robert Charles Wilson unorthodox survival men Some things are taken away from you, some you leave behind and some you carry with you, world without end. Robert Charles Wilson taken ends world I would confront the thieves, I thought, and the self-evident justice of my case would cause them to crumble before me. I don't know why I expected such extravagant results from the application of mere justice. That kind of calculation is seldom borne out by worldly events. Robert Charles Wilson causes self justice If I am an agnostic, Calyxa, it's because I'm also a realist. Robert Charles Wilson agnostic realist ifs