Think, for a second—if you succeeded, if you stole the physical object on whose slow quantum decomposition this strand’s random-number generators depend, if that triggered a cryptographic crisis, if that crisis led people to distrust their food printers, if hungry masses rioted, if riots fed this glitter to the fires of war, we’d have to start again—cannibalizing other strands, likely from your braid. And then we’d be at one another’s throats even more.
-- Red (chapter 4)

Importance: This quote basically explains the parameters of the time war itself and the consequences that the actions of the two characters have on different timelines. Red here is chastising Blue for trying to disrupt a more technologically advanced society, but it could easily be argued that Red's efforts to meddle with the lives of people that are prone to make scientific developments are just as disruptive. At any rate, both characters...