I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.

Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.

I want to weep, she thought. I want to be comforted. I’m so tired of being strong. I want to be foolish and frightened for once. Just for a small while, that’s all …a day … an hour ...
...One day, she promised herself as she lay abed, one day she would allow herself to be less than strong.
But not today. It could not be today.

Sometimes, sitting here in the dark, slowly slowly creating strategy, she wondered if she was only fooling herself to think her plans were clever.

Intelligence is the handmaiden of flexibility and change.

We humans have millions of years of evolutionary baggage that makes us regard competition in a deadly light.