1) ''I had never been very comfortable with large ideas---astrophysics, areology, all seemed cavernous and dismal compared to the bright briefness of human history. In my studies I focused on the intricacies of politics and culture, human interaction; Charles I think preferred the wide-open territories of nature without humanity.''

2) '''Earth is really something,' Orianna said with a wonderfully languid blink. 'I see it a lot more clearly now that I've been to Mars.'''

3) ''The Moon hung clean silver beside the Earth's lapis and quartz. There is no more beautiful a world in the Solar System than Earth. I might have been looking down on the planet billions of years ago. Even the faint sparks of tethered platforms around the equator, sucking electric power from the Mother's magnetic field, could not remove my sense of awe; here was where it all began.''

4) '''The Republic is still under threat, perhaps a greater threat than ever before. This Solar System is fatal. It's fatal for Mars. Ask Charles to explain. Everything is out of balance. We have used fear to fight the effects of terror. Listen: we're lambs, you and I. We're expendable for the greater good.
I don't mean our lives, honey. I mean our souls.'''