Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
John Scalzi
52 quotes
“(T)he idealized world Ayn Rand has created to facilitate her wishful theorizing has no more logical connection to our real one than a world in which an author has imagined humanity ruled by intelligent cups of yogurt. This is most obviously revealed by the fact that in Ayn Rand’s world, a man who self-righteously instigates the collapse of society, thereby inevitably killing millions if not billions of people, is portrayed as a messiah figure rather than as a genocidal prick, which is what he’d be anywhere else.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What I Think About Atlas Shrugged, 2010
“The failure mode of clever is “asshole.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Failure Mode of Clever, 2010
“Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think - and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking - that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It's the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be, 2012
“The problem with aging is not that it’s one damn thing after another—it’s every damn thing, all at once, all the time. You can’t stop aging. Gene therapies and replacement organs and plastic surgery give it a good fight. But it catches up with you anyway. Get a new lung, and your heart blows a valve. Get a new heart, and your liver swells up to the size of an inflatable kiddie pool. Change out your liver, a stroke gives you a whack. That’s aging’s trump card; they still can’t replace brains.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had never seen so many old people in one place at one time. Neither had Harry. “It’s like Wednesday morning at the world’s biggest Denny’s,” he said.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What’s the point of being in charge if you can’t indulge in pointless favoritism.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The recruit was Sam McCain; in one of our lunch sessions I recalled Sarah O’Connell describing him as more mouth than brain. Unsurprisingly, he’d been in sales most of his life.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this universe, experience counts.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not sure I like their plan for converting us to their religion, seeing as it involves dying and all.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obviously, the Rraey have some way to predict, with a high degree of accuracy, where our ships are going to skip. How do they do that?” “I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to,” I said. “That’s exactly right. But they do anyway. So, quite obviously, our model of how skipping works is wrong. Theory gets thrown out the window when observation proves it isn’t so. The question now is what is really going on.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not insane, sir,” I said. “I have a finely calibrated sense of acceptable risk.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s Charlie’s soul,” he repeated. “Or more accurately, it’s a holographic representation of the dynamic electrical system that embodies the consciousness of Charles Boutin.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human technology was good, and weapon to weapon humans were as well-equipped as the vast majority of their adversaries. But the weapon that ultimately matters is the one behind the trigger.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those people you saw—the realborn—are born without a plan. They’re born because biology tells humans to make more humans; but it doesn’t consider what to do with them after that. Realborn go for years without the slightest clue what they’re going to do with themselves. From what I understand, some of them never actually figure it out. They just walk through life in a daze and then fall into their graves at the end of it. Sad. And inefficient.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rationality is not one of humanity’s strong points.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jared, allow me to share with you my philosophy of human beings. It can be summed up in four words: I like good people.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn’t say that,” Szilard said, in a tone that implied that perhaps he had.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When power is within reach, few will wait patiently for it.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No, it's not fair. You're in the wrong universe for fair.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That’s physicists for you. Not exactly brimming over with poetry.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harry!” Boutin said. “Nice guy. Didn’t know he was that smart. He hid it well.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are sufficiently like me to officially be interesting.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every creature has fear,” Jared said. “Even the non-conscious ones.” “No,” Boutin said. “Every creature has a survival instinct. It looks like fear but it’s not the same thing. Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine if every species named itself after its greatest flaw. We could name our species arrogance.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She was temptable—which, if you believe in an all-powerful God, means God intentionally put temptation into Eve. Which seems like a dirty trick, if you ask me.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You and I don’t actually need to be here for this,” I said to the goat. The goat didn’t respond, but I could tell she agreed with me.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some people are just no good at not being in charge.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Teenagers can be idiotic and stupid, but teenagers also model their behavior from the signals they get from adults.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you control communication, you can hide anything you want.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t appreciate the suggestion that I’m acting irrationally,” he said. “Then don’t act irrationally,” Jane said, “because there will be consequences.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Empires of conquest don’t last, Administrator Perry. They hollow out from within, from the greed of rulers and the endless appetite for war.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That’s a nice speech, Trujillo,” Rybicki said. “It doesn’t make it true.” “General, at the moment, I wouldn’t place you as an authority on truth.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Look,” I said. “Something that needs your attention. Over there. Away from here.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is Major Perry’s house?” “I hope so,” I said. “All his stuff is here.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Eight-year-olds can switch into acquisition mode pretty quickly.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes I don’t know if my life is complicated, or if it’s that I just think too much about things.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess I was just hoping there might be a way to do things other than the way that ends up with everyone getting killed.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have drinks,” Hanson said, coming up behind Duvall. “Why, Jimmy,” Duvall said. “That makes you my new favorite person.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who are you and what medications aren’t you taking?”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have no idea what that means, Nick,” Paulson said. “Talk normal human to me.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t think it would actually make you happier to be told you were right about this,” he said finally. “I don’t want to be happy,” Dahl said. “I just want to know.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don’t win by getting through all your life not having done anything.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why ‘threep’? Why ‘clank’? Slang happens.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike Agents Vann and Shane here, who are being wholly disingenuous, you might be speaking out of genuine ignorance and not just your usual levels of casual obstructionism.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you believe that?” I asked. “It doesn’t matter whether I believe it or not,” Redhouse said.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was pretty certain my dad was not up to no good, running for senator notwithstanding.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t know,” Davidson said. “Maybe it’s not about politics. Maybe these guys are just assholes.” “Seems the simplest explanation,” I said.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are better at small talk than I am. That is not always a compliment.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He’s almost certainly planned for the contingency of being caught. He’s rich and he’s got more lawyers than some countries have people.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harvey was not especially introspective, but this didn’t mean he was stupid. He was moral, within his lights; he understood the value of subtlety even if he wasn’t much for it himself, and one of the reasons he could get away with being loud and obnoxious was that he was a fair stick at strategy and logistics. Give him a job and he’d do it, usually in the most entropy-producing way possible, yes, but also in a way that achieved exactly the aim it was supposed to. One of Harvey’s guiding lights in terms of strategies was simplicity; all things being equal, Harvey preferred the course of action that let him get into the middle of things and then just buckle down. When asked about it, Harvey called it his Occam’s razor theory of combat: The simplest way of kicking someone’s ass was usually the correct one.”
John Scalzi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source