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Michael Crichton
80 quotes
“Carr was left with a ring, in the palm of his hand, a small gold circle, leading him nowhere.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Scratch One, written under the pseudonym John Lange (1967)
“They passed a farmhouse, a simple shack surrounded by animals — a lazy burro, clucking chickens, a litter of pigs. The farmhouse stood alone in the desolate landscape. There was no sign of a living person anywhere. And then it was gone, lost in the swirling dust plume of the car.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zero Cool, written under the pseudonym John Lange (1969)
“This polarization of the issues has contributed greatly to our national paralysis, because it posits false choices which stifle debate essential to change. It is ironic that this should happen in a time of great social upheaval, when our society needs more than ever to be able to experiment with different viewpoints. But in the media world, a previously established idea, like a previously elected politician, enjoys a tremendous advantage over any challenger. Hence the familiar ideas continue to be repeated, long past their demonstrable validity.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mediasaurus: The decline of conventional media" - Speech at the National Press Club, Washington D.C. (7 April 1993)
“Let's be clear: all professions look bad in the movies. And there's a good reason for this. Movies don't portray career paths, they conscript interesting lifestyles to serve a plot. So lawyers are all unscrupulous and doctors are all uncaring. Psychiatrists are all crazy, and politicians are all corrupt. All cops are psychopaths, and all businessmen are crooks. Even moviemakers come off badly: directors are megalomaniacs, actors are spoiled brats. Since all occupations are portrayed negatively, why expect scientists to be treated differently?”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ritual Abuse, Hot Air, and Missed Opportunities: Science Views Media" - Speech to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Anaheim, California (25 January 1999)
“Science is the most exciting and sustained enterprise of discovery in the history of our species. It is the great adventure of our time. We live today in an era of discovery that far outshadows the discoveries of the New World five hundred years ago.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ritual Abuse, Hot Air, and Missed Opportunities: Science Views Media" Speech to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Anaheim, California (25 January 1999)
“Science is nothing more than a method of inquiry. The method says an assertion is valid — and merits universal acceptance — only if it can be independently verified. The impersonal rigor of the method means it is utterly apolitical. A truth in science is verifiable whether you are black or white, male or female, old or young. It's verifiable whether you like the results of a study, or you don't.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Testimony before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (28 September 2005)
“I want to state emphatically that nothing in my remarks should be taken to imply that we can ignore our environment, or that we should not take climate change seriously. On the contrary, we must dramatically improve our record on environmental management. That is why a focused effort on climate science, aimed at securing sound, independently verified answers to policy questions, is so important now.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Testimony before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (28 September 2005)
“Whatever I am doing, I wish I were doing one of the other things.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cabbie laughed. "All right, mister. A guy can tell when he's being kidded." Sometimes," Jencks said, "but only sometimes.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Steve Jencks: The computer doesn't have any ideas. It only evaluates mine...”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You could not predict what would happen in a single instance, a single throw of the dice, a single pitch in the seventh inning, a single toss of the coin. But you could predict three out of five, four out of ten, seven out of sixteen, and to that extent chance governed everyone, all the time. Just as surely as two equals two.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Egypt imbued the view with a heavy sense of mystery and foreboding.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You want to know about the last tomb? [Conway] asked Pierce. "I'll tell you." He tapped the white cranium. "That's the last tomb, man. Right there, and you're buried there all your life. You can't escape it.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would give anything to know what you thought at the moment you died," Pierce said. His voice echoed in the tomb. The flame went out.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a sense that is a part of the training: surgeons are lonely men.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I tried to tell which was Randall, but I could not; in their gowns and masks, they all looked the same, impersonal, interchangeable. That was not true of course. One of those four men had responsibility for everything, for the contact of all sixteen workers present. And responsibility for the seventeenth person in that room, the man whose heart was stopped.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being on the "Hold" is the technological equivalent of purgatory.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sanderson laughed. "There's no problem," he said. "Yet. I've got a pretty tough old neck. I can keep it stuck out a while longer.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I smiled, remembering Art's line about doctors being illpolitical. He meant it the way you used words like illiterate. Art always said doctors not only held no political views, but also were incapable of them. "It's like the military," he had once said. "Political views are considered unprofessional.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Leland Weston: "Never take a position unless you are certain it can be defended any onslaught. That may sound like good advice to a general, but then, a courtroom is nothing more then a very civilized war.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I went down to my car, [Peter Randall] said, "If you don't want to get involved I'll understand" I looked back at him. "You know damn well I'd have no choice." "I didn't," he said. "But I was hoping.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the conservative region far from the chaotic edge, individual elements coalesce slowly, showing no clear pattern." - Ian Malcolm”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They'll say, 'You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?' They'll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer and better fantasies. And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That's the sea. That's real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That's all real. You see all of us together? That's real. Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had a term for people like this: temporal provincials—people who were ignorant of the past, and proud of it. Temporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let’s not escape into mathematics. Let’s stay with reality.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The so-called time paradoxes,” Doniger said, “do not really involve time. They involve ideas about history that are seductive but wrong. Seductive, because they flatter you into thinking you can have an impact on the course of events. And wrong, because of course, you can’t.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But in theory…” “When we are dealing with history, theories are worthless,” Doniger said with a contemptuous wave. “A theory is only valuable if it has the ability to predict future outcomes. But history is the record of human action—and no theory can predict human action.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had only imagined a slower fighting style from an unconscious assumption that man in the past were weaker or slower or less imaginative than he was, as a modern man. Marek knew this assumption of superiority was a difficulty faced by every historian. He just hadn’t thought he was guilty of it. But clearly, he was.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is the dominant motive experience at the end of the twentieth century? How do people see things, and how do they expect to see things? The answer is simple. In every field, from business to politics to marketing to education, the dominant mode has become entertainment.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But where will this mania for entertainment end? What will people do when they get tired of television? When they get tired of movies? We already know the answer—they go into participatory activities: sports, theme parks, amusement rides, roller coasters. Structured fun, planned thrills. And what will they do when they tire of theme parks and planned thrills? Sooner or later, the artifice becomes too noticeable. They begin to realize that an amusement park is really a kind of jail, in which you pay to be an inmate.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This artifice will drive them to seek authenticity. Authenticity will be the buzzword of the twenty-first century. And what is authentic? Anything that is not devised and structured to make a profit. Anything that is not controlled by corporations. Anything that exists for its own sake and assumes its own shape. But of course, nothing in the modern world is allowed to assume its own shape. The modern world is the corporate equivalent of a formal garden, where everything is planted and arranged for effect. Where nothing is untouched, where nothing is authentic.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us why the things we value are the things we should value. And it tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Things do not turn out the way you think they will.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They didn't understand what they were doing. I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race. I hope it's not. We might get lucky.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Julia's original email says, "We have nothing to lose." But in the end they lost everything — their company, their lives, everything. And the ironic thing is, the procedure worked. The swarm actually solved the problem they had set for it.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The examples can be multiplied endlessly. Jenner and smallpox, Pasteur and germ theory. Saccharine, margarine, repressed memory, fiber and colon cancer, hormone replacement therapy. The list of consensus errors goes on and on.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Finally, I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once you abandon strict adherence to what science tells us, once you start arranging the truth in a press conference, then anything is possible. In one context, maybe you will get some mobilization against nuclear war. But in another context, you get Lysenkoism. In another, you get Nazi euthanasia. The danger is always there, if you subvert science to political ends.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the twentieth century drew to a close, the connection between hard scientific fact and public policy became increasingly elastic. In part this was possible because of the complacency of the scientific profession; in part because of the lack of good science education among the public; in part, because of the rise of specialized advocacy groups which have been enormously effective in getting publicity and shaping policy; and in great part because of the decline of the media as an independent assessor of fact.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: “These results are derived with the help of a computer model.” But now, large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world—increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is clear, however, is that on this issue [global warming], science and policy have become inextricably mixed to the point where it will be difficult, if not impossible, to separate them out.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact is that the present structure of science is entrepreneurial, with individual investigative teams vying for funding from organizations that all too often have a clear stake in the outcome of the research—or appear to, which may be just as bad. This is not healthy for science.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In recent years, much has been said about the post-modernist claims about science to the effect that science is just another form of raw power, tricked out in special claims for truth-seeking and objectivity that really have no basis in fact. Science, we are told, is no better than any other undertaking. These ideas anger many scientists, and they anger me. But recent events have made me wonder if they are correct.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order not to be misunderstood, I want it perfectly clear that I believe it is incumbent on us to conduct our lives in a way that takes into account all the consequences of our actions, including the consequences to other people, and the consequences to the environment.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source