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Alastair Reynolds
259 quotes
“Memo to himself: the one way to make people panic was to warn them not to.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All machines knew what would happen to them when their masters lost faith in their infallibility.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But sanity, Vasko decided, was like the pattern of lights he could see through his cabin window. In almost any direction the only way to travel was into darkness, and there was a lot more darkness than light.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rashmika could tell when anyone around her was lying. But seeing through her own deceptions was another matter entirely.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The church-sponsored archaeologists were the only ones who had any kind of overview of the entire haul of relics, and they were under intense pressure to ignore any evidence that conflicted with Quaicheist scripture. That was why Rashmika wrote them so many letters, and why their infrequent replies were always so evasive. She wanted an argument; she wanted to question the entire accepted view of the scuttlers. They wanted her to go away.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maps had never really been his thing, even during his days under Scorpio in Chasm City. There, it had hardly mattered. Blood’s motto had always been that if you needed a map to find your way around a neighbourhood, you were already in trouble.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Personally,” Scorpio said, “I think it’s time to stop thinking chivalry and start thinking artillery.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But of course, you don’t believe in the existence of sin, do you?” “I believe in the existence of reckless stupidity,” Rashmika replied.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m fed up with everyone being lied to just because the administration thinks it’s in our best interests not to know all the facts.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He’s not really a religious man, but he knows which side his bread’s buttered on. The churches pay his salary, so he doesn’t want anyone rocking the boat with unorthodox rumours.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That would require an unprecedented leap of faith.” “I don’t do faith,” Scorpio said.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a glaring omission, a sign of cosmic sloppiness. Not even that, Vasko corrected himself. It was a sign of cosmic obliviousness. The universe didn’t know what was happening here. It didn’t know and it didn’t care. It didn’t even know that it didn’t know.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until recently we were a trio. Before that, a quartet. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m beginning to detect a trend.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought debate was supposed to be healthy,” she countered. “It is,” Auger replied, “so long as you don’t disagree with me.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As always, it was necessary to strike a balance between a cavalier disregard for the rules and a professional understanding that some rules were more flexible than others.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Charm was what he excelled at. If anyone sensed his underlying shallowness, they usually mistook it for well-hidden great depth of character, like misinterpreting a radar bounce.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Fascists got what they deserved,” Floyd said. “My husband lived long enough to see those monsters come to come to power. He saw through their lies and promises, but he also knew that they spoke to something nasty and squalid in the human spirit. Something in all of us. We want to hate those who are not like us. All we need is an excuse, a whisper in the ear.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe it’s not as bad as she fears. Old people always think the world is going to ruin. It’s their job.” “Maybe they’re right,” Floyd replied.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s a catch,” Skellsgard said. “Another one? But of course there is. You know, I’m thinking I should start a collection.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The central defect of the human mind,” Custine said, “is its unfortunate habit of seeing patterns where none exist. Of course, that is also its chief asset.” “But sometimes a very dangerous one.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why was it never good news that put problems into perspective? Why did it always take another set of problems?”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It must be a real one-horse town.” Auger shook her head as she lit a cigarette. “It has wild ambitions of becoming a one-horse town.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nice girls don’t carry guns.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She must have walked through life with men like him falling at her feet, squashing them underfoot like autumn leaves. It probably happened so often that all she noticed was that nice crunching sound.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ll survive,” Floyd said. “I’m a private detective. If I don’t get clouted on the head at least once a week, I’m not doing my job properly.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is that as bad as it sounds?” Floyd asked. “No,” Auger said. “It’s worse. A lot worse.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The future might have been crammed with miracles and wonders, but it also offered truly awesome opportunities for screwing up.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anxiety is a useful tool: it forces us to make plans. But when too much anxiety freezes us into indecision, it needs checking.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one ever took music away from me, but I’m damned if it ever sounds quite as good as it used to when I was twenty.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel as if I’m missing all the excitement.” ”In my experience,” Tunguska said, making himself a temporary seat, “excitement is always better when it happens to other people.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But at least you cared. At least you were ready to do something.” “This little mess,” Auger said, “is all because of people who were ready to do something. People like me, who always know when they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe what we need is a few less of us.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The simple fact was that she no longer hated them as a matter of principle. It was also a source of shameful amazement that she could ever have wasted so much energy on groundless prejudice, when acceptance and tolerance would have been the easier, even the lazier, course.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But when she tried to say something, the words always seemed trite and inadequate. Nothing measured up. When any moment might be their last, there was nothing she could ever imagine saying that had the necessary dignity to fill that instant. Silence was better. Silence had its own dignity.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was bad, but it was some other slightly less piquant flavour of bad.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Auger could not help marvelling at the experience of being inside the ALS sphere and seeing her world as it should have been. This was an earth that had never known nuclear war, or runaway climatic catastrophe, or smart weather, or a Nanocaust. The sight of it made her want to weep. No image had ever come close to the heartbreaking beauty of this small blue world, a beauty all the more acute now that she knew how exquisitely fragile it was. It was the beauty of a butterfly’s wing.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was something about the cocksure confidence of that statement that gave Auger goose pimples. It was like an invitation to fate.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess I’ll do what everyone else does: get on with my life and forget the big questions.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was astonishing how quickly friendship could turn to enmity, she thought, like a compass needle swinging from one pole to the other. They’d been excellent friends. They’d make excellent enemies as well.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s a lot here we don’t understand. Adding one more thing to the list doesn’t strike me as the worst crime imaginable.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such hopes now seemed ludicrous in their naivety, like trying to stop a bulldozer with a feather.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s always easier to hate than to forgive, isn’t it?”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You always did think like an engineer, Svieta.” She nodded. It was only hours later that she realised he had not necessarily meant it as a compliment.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once, they would have meant something to Svetlana, but now all she felt was a faint prickly of recollection. Fluency with mathematics—in the context of any kind of engineering discipline or physical science—was a use-it-or-lose-it skill.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even godlike aliens have to act rationally—don’t they?” “I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I can’t recall ever meeting any.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hallucination doesn’t preclude a rational response to that same hallucination.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is he going to be okay?” Svetlana asked. “He was dead, Svieta,” Axford said patiently. “Anything else has to count as an improvement.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The question is: do you trust me?” “Sometimes.” Bella smiled. “That’s exactly the right attitude: trust your leaders, but be careful not to trust them too much.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are certain truths that, in themselves, are as dangerous as any advanced technology.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The existence theorem says that it is always much easier to find a solution when you can be confident that one exists.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We’ve never lied to you,” McKinley said. “No,” Bella said, “but you’ve done a damned good job of not correcting any of my assumptions.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source