Top 200 Martha Wells Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 5

51. “He was starting to realize that maybe he didn’t actually know the difference between trusting people and just pretending to trust them while bracing for the betrayal.”

— Martha Wells

52. “That’s the other problem with human security: they’re allowed to give up.”

— Martha Wells

53. “Young humans can be impulsive. The trick is keeping them around long enough to become old humans.”

— Martha Wells

54. “Not that a lot of them had asked for it, or had listened to me. Not that I’m bitter about that, or anything.”

— Martha Wells

55. “But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don’t tell people that. Yes, everyone does know it.”

— Martha Wells

56. “The good thing about being a construct is that you can’t reproduce and create children to argue with you.”

— Martha Wells

57. “I don’t know why, because it’s one of those things I’m not contractually obligated to care about.”

— Martha Wells

58. “Anyway, there was a difference in watching media because I was safe on a transport with no one making me do anything, and watching media because I was trying not to think about all the ways I’d screwed up and what might happen next, a future that was bound to include even more creative screw-ups on my part.”

— Martha Wells

59. “It was very dramatic, like something out of a historical adventure serial. Also correct in every aspect except for all the facts, like something out of a historical adventure serial.”

— Martha Wells

60. “I was trying not to think about all the ways I’d screwed up and what might happen next, a future that was bound to include even more creative screw-ups on my part. I had gotten used to the former and I hated going back to the latter.”

— Martha Wells

61. “I have a plan.” This was true. “I just don’t know whether it will actually work or not.” This, unfortunately, was also true.”

— Martha Wells

62. “Humans always think they’ve covered their tracks and deleted their data, but they’re wrong a lot.”

— Martha Wells

63. “I’m a murderbot, I don’t give a crap about boats.”

— Martha Wells

64. “I thought it was likely that the only supplies we would need for DeltFall was the postmortem kind, but you may have noticed that when I do manage to care, I’m a pessimist.”

— Martha Wells

65. “Letting them see me without the armor had been a huge mistake. At least Mensah and Arada had overruled the ones who wanted to talk to me about it. Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.”

— Martha Wells

66. “I would defer to your expertise in shooting and killing things. You should defer to mine in data analysis.”

— Martha Wells

67. “All right,” she said, and looked at me for what objectively I knew was 2.4 seconds and subjectively about twenty excruciating minutes.”

— Martha Wells

68. “For a being as sophisticated as you are, it is baffling how little understanding you have of the composition of your own mind.”

— Martha Wells

69. “Yes, the giant transport bot is going to help the construct SecUnit pretend to be human. This will go well.”

— Martha Wells

70. “SecUnits aren’t sentimental about each other. We aren’t friends, the way the characters on the serials are, or the way my humans were. We can’t trust each other, even if we work together. Even if you don’t have clients who decide to entertain themselves by ordering their SecUnits to fight each other.”

— Martha Wells

71. “I have a name, but it’s private. On their secure feed connection, Pin-Lee sent to Mensah, Oh, that’s going to go over well. When station residents are running into “Murderbot” – That’s one of the reasons why it’s private.”

— Martha Wells

72. “You know that thing humans do where they think they’re being completely logical and they absolutely are not being logical at all, and on some level they know that, but can’t stop? Apparently it can happen to SecUnits, too.”

— Martha Wells

73. “This is how we fight: throw ourselves at each other and see whose parts give out first.”

— Martha Wells

74. “I was unimpressed, having heard ART’s “villain of a long-running mythic adventure serial” voice before, but all the humans got quiet. Amena shifted uncertainly and looked at me. Then Ratthi whispered, “Was that a subtle threat?” I said, “No. It wasn’t subtle.”

— Martha Wells

75. “On the feed the humans settled some details of what I was designating as Operation Not Actually A Completely Terrible Plan.”

— Martha Wells

76. “It took a tremendous effort for me not to rip his arm off, and I’d like that noted for the record, please. He said, “Its comm is down.”

— Martha Wells

77. “I hate having emotions about real humans instead of fake ones, it just leads to stupid moments like this.”

— Martha Wells

78. “We’re cheaply produced and we suck.”

— Martha Wells

79. “I found it odd that the transport was less interested in Sanctuary Moon, which took place on a colony, than Worldhoppers, which was about the crew of a large exploration ship. You’d think it would be too much like work – I avoided serials about survey teams and mining installations – but maybe familiar things were easier for.”

— Martha Wells

80. “It was starting to occur to me that Dr. Mensah might actually be an intrepid galactic explorer, even if she didn’t look like the ones on the entertainment feed.”

— Martha Wells

81. “I am tired of the whole concept of humans right now.”

— Martha Wells

82. “She hesitated, then sent to me in the feed, I’m going to touch you, don’t freak out.”

— Martha Wells

83. “Join the Rienish navy. See unusual sights. Never sleep with the lights out again.”

— Martha Wells

84. “Iris: “Peri, you can’t bomb the colony.” Perihelion: “You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony.”

— Martha Wells

85. “It must be hard to respect other people’s privacy when you’ve had to fight and scheme for every minute of your own. Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia was justified.”

— Martha Wells

86. “His biggest rule was that you didn’t involve anyone who wasn’t already playing the game. Or, as he phrased it, if you have to kill innocent bystanders, then your planning is at fault and someone should best eliminate you.”

— Martha Wells

87. “Sometimes humans can’t help but let emotion bleed through into the feed.”

— Martha Wells

88. “Annoying people is something of a talent of mine. I gave it up for a while, but lately it’s started to come back to me.”

— Martha Wells

89. “She eyed Moon without favor. “And you. You have to be coaxed to do everything except risk your life.”

— Martha Wells

90. “All I wanted to do was watch media and not exist. I said, You know I don’t like fun.”

— Martha Wells

91. “Humans and augmented humans shift their weight when they stand, they react to sudden sounds and bright lights, they scratch themselves, they adjust their hair, they look in their pockets or bags to check for things that they already know are in there.”

— Martha Wells

92. “Freehold meant it had been terraformed and colonized but wasn’t affiliated with any corporate confederations. Basically freehold generally meant shitshow so I hadn’t been expecting much from them. But they were surprisingly easy to work for.”

— Martha Wells

93. “We’re not murderers, Tremaine. We’re killers. There’s a difference. A small difference, but a difference nonetheless.”

— Martha Wells

94. “Because change is terrifying. Choices are terrifying. But having a thing in your head that kills you if you make a mistake is more terrifying.”

— Martha Wells

95. “In the feed, ART started to play the soundtrack to Sanctuary Moon and weirdly, that helped.”

— Martha Wells

96. “I wasn’t sure exactly what “okay” would involve, but I was willing to settle for “unmurdered.”

— Martha Wells

97. “I told Mensah through the feed that I wouldn’t speak aloud on the comm anymore. She tapped back an acknowledgment on the feed, and I heard her telling the others to get off my feed and my comm, that she was going to be the only one speaking to me so I wasn’t distracted. Mensah underestimated my ability to ignore humans but I appreciated the thought.”

— Martha Wells

98. “I was having an emotion, and I hate that. I’d rather have nice safe emotions about shows on the entertainment media; having them about things real-life humans said and did just led to stupid decisions.”

— Martha Wells

99. “I didn’t react visibly, because I’m used to clients making bad decisions, and I was getting a lot of practice at controlling my expression.”

— Martha Wells

100. “She was beginning to recognize it as the feeling of anger taken to such a level it was no longer possible to separate it from any other emotion or thought. In a way, it was a liberating sensation.”

— Martha Wells