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Neal Stephenson
131 quotes
“Every parent of a teenager gets used to it: the moment in a child's life when he or she decides that certain facts are just too much trouble to explain to Mom or Dad. The parents can't, and needn't, know every last little thing. They just have to accept this, be content with what they can glean on their own, and move on.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Luisa] knew how to use her own ignorance as an icebreaker in conversations. Izzy was full of people who were skewed toward the Asperger’s end of the social spectrum, and there was no better way to get them to start talking than to ask them a technical question.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You could get use to anything. You got used to it and then time raced by, and before you knew it, time was up.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Politics,” Doob sighed. Luisa chuckled. “I hear you, sugar. I’m not gonna say you’re wrong. But I have to warn you that this is the word—‘politics’—that nerds use whenever they feel impatient about the human realities of an organization.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His earlier conversation with Luisa had brought home to him, however, that ignoring politics might not be the wisest long-term strategy. He might not care about politics, but politics cared about him.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When he tried to filter out that bias and to look at the models and the data in a completely objective way, he concluded that the jury was still out. So, technical discussions of the matter tended to be unproductive, except insofar as they revealed the biases that the participants had brought into the room with them. And here was where it started to get difficult for him personally, because he couldn't understand why anyone would harbor a bias different from his own.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hotness was a part of the human condition and it was pointless to pretend that it did not exist.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We did not expect to have a backup system for the rest of the universe. We can rely upon it to be cold most of the time.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The little boy in him was crestfallen that he wasn't going on the adventure. Then he reminded himself that he was already part of the biggest adventure ever, and that, so far, it had been altogether miserable.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can't run this experiment a thousand times to see the range of different outcomes. We can only run it once. The human mind has trouble with situations like that. We see patterns where they don't exist, we find meaning in randomness.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trying to, you know, persuade others to join our side. Trying to make the other side look bad. Just like the Internet always was.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can’t make the same mistake again,” Aïda said, “of fooling ourselves. Believing in shit that isn’t real.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a process known as parthenogenesis, literally virgin birth, by which a uniparental embryo can be created out of a normal egg. It's been done with animals. The only reason no one ever did it with humans is because it seemed ethically dodgy, as well as completely unnecessary given the willingness of men to impregnate women every chance they got.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need brains, is the bottom line,” Ivy said. “We’re not hunter-gatherers anymore. We’re all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn’t bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It’s our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have been clinically depressed for most of my life. I once used drugs to fix it. Then I stopped. I stopped because I decided they were making me stupid, and I'd rather be miserable than stupid. I am what I am.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kath Two was the sort of person whose caches were apt to be crammed with paper books. For her, the electronic books were an insurance policy of sorts. The four-day elevator ride might be nothing more than a prelude to further journeys, some of which might take her to places with little to no bandwidth, and nothing was worse than getting stuck in a situation like that with nothing to read.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope that this assignment will not prove an inconvenience,” Doc continued. “All duty is inconvenient to a greater or lesser degree, or it would not be duty.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If history was any guide, those best at violence might end up ruling over everyone else.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had had many conversations during his long life. Some were fascinating and stayed with him more than a century later. Others were less so. As a younger man he had tolerated those as part of the cost of doing business—a sort of tax that all people must pay in order to take part in civilized society. When he had turned one hundred, he had decided to stop paying that tax. Henceforth he would engage only in conversations that really interested him—which, with a few exceptions for close friends and family members, meant conversations with a purpose.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As it turned out, imagining the fate of seven billion people was far less emotionally affecting than imagining the fate of one.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is only a certain type of mind that scorns what is known by all and treats secrets as jewels.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mere suggestion that it might be possible to look at a thing from more than one point of view was infuriating to these people.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you show her too much favor she will be punished. If you touch her, we’re all dead,” Ty said. “Why?” Einstein asked. “Because this is one of those cultures that is psychotic about female reproductive organs.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are going to make first contact with an intelligent alien race,” said Cantabrigia Five, “dropping huge strip-mining robots into their homeland might not be your best move.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who claim they are motivated by the Purpose end up behaving differently—and generally better—than people who serve other masters.” “So it is like believing in God.” “Maybe yes. But without the theology, the scripture, the pigheaded certainty.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My name is Melisande Stokes and this is my story. I am writing in July 1851 (Common Era, or—let's face it—Anno Domini)...London, England. But I am not a native of this place or time. In fact, I am quite desperate to get out of here...when I'm done writing this Diachronicle, I am going to take it to the very discreet private offices of the Fugger Bank...not to be opened for more than one hundred and sixty years. The Fuggers, above all people in this world, understand the dangers of Diachronic Shear.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diachronicle: Preamble, July 1851
“I'm writing with a steel-nibbed dip pen...partly so that I could jab my thumb with it and draw blood. The brown smear across the top of this page can be tested in any twenty-first-century DNA lab...and you will know that I am a woman of your era, writing in the middle of the nineteenth century... To quote Peter Gabriel, a singer/songwriter who will be born ninety-nine years from now: This will be my testimony.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diachronicle: Preamble, July 1851
“Reader, if you don't know what a database is, rest assured that an explanation of the concept would in no way increase your enjoyment in reading this account. If you do know, you will thank me for sparing you the details.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young, lavishly bearded tech entrepreneurs were trudging forlornly down the hallways, laden with computers, printers, high-end coffeemakers, and foosball tables. Like digital Okies they loaded their stuff into their Scions or Ryder trucks and rumbled off into the unforgiving Boston commercial real estate market. “So you’re going to, uh, remove basically the entire floor of the conference room?” “The conference room will cease to exist. DODO is not about meetings. Not about PowerPoints.” “I never imagined otherwise.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I made it into Wikipedia,” sang Erszebet. “I’ll bet none of my enemies ever made it into Wikipedia.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The next station was called simply TRAPEZOID, but I could have guessed as much from the fact that more than half the people getting on and off the train were dressed in military uniforms of one service or another...As the headquarters of the American military and presumed ground zero for any hostile military strike, the Trapezoid had, for me, always been more mythic than real...The terrorists had targeted it on 9/11, and I could see part of the memorial that had been built on the side where the plane had crashed into it.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I tried working from the other direction, getting what information I could about the modern-day organization, and working backwards. But they were discreet to the point of paranoia, running their business through a network of offshore companies registered in places like the Cayman Islands, Jersey, and the Isle of Man. They only allowed the Fugger name to break the surface when it was to their tactical advantage, as when trying to hire employees for of their humanitarian NGOs.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In layperson's terms: if it has to be dunked in liquid helium to work, I don't understand it. If it's in a rack with fans blowing on it, that's a different story.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“IF YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE IN A SWORDFIGHT This comes up a lot and I am working on upgrading the relevant wiki pages, but people seem to end up here anyway LOL. My basic advice: DON'T DO IT! It is ridiculously, fantastically dangerous. Modern people are calibrated for a whole different level of danger acceptance.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most of them don't actually care who wins because they understand it's just about who sits on the throne, they know the Crusaders aren't here to try to actually harm the city itself. All the potential emperors are assholes, and they're all related to each other, it hardly matters which one wins. So the citizens are literally picnicking and placing bets on who wins the day.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1203 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After Action Report. Debriefer: Dr. Melisande Stokes. DOER: LTC Tristan Lyons. DEDE: Relic relocation. DTAP: Pera, Constantinople, July 1203.
“BOG Container Lines Inc. is the survival into modern times of Bunch of Grapes, which is an extremely old presence in the shipping industry. I mean, it's named after a tavern in Boston from the 1600s that was named after a tavern in London that dates back to at least the 1200s...I'm still waiting for some query results to come back so that we can discover their inevitable connection to the Fuggers. I don't even know why I bother.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Day 1959 (9 December, year 5) 16:42. Post from Mortimer Shore on “General” GRIMNIR channel.
“Sportsmanship is for sportsmen.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diachronicle: day 1960 (10 December, year 5)
“We’re bankers. That is really all we are. If you’ve been imagining some sort of fabulous conspiracy, you are in for a disappointment. Bankers, you see, don’t actually do very much. We take our percentage. That is all. We subsist on movements of money—across space, across time, and between Strands.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diachronicle: day 1960 (10 December, year 5) Frederick Fugger speaking to Melisande and Tristan.
“In this dream, Dodge was in the small town in Iowa where he had grown up...the grid street pattern of that town was, decades later, the spatial lattice on which virtually all of his dreams were constructed. It was the graph paper on which his mind seemed to need to plot things.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The amount of time spent asleep didn't really matter. He had decided that the key to it all — the one thing that determined whether the nap would actually refresh him — was the breaking of the thread of consciousness...Even if he woke up ten seconds later, he would be as refreshed — possibly more so — as if he'd slumbered deeply for an hour.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I need you down here,” said his boss. “All hands on deck.” Then he hung up without explanation, leaving Corvallis with the vague feeling that he was missing something. ... The trail of notifications on his phone told the story. They had originated from various people on various social networks, but they had all been triggered by the same event: the surprising obliteration of the town of Moab, Utah, by what was apparently a tactical nuclear weapon.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Someone in DC posted a snapshot of a pizza delivery guy on a Pentagon-bound Metro train, toting a stack of pizzas so high he had to use a two-wheeled dolly. Self-proclaimed experts in the comment thread were climbing all over one another to explain that massive pizza deliveries to the Pentagon were an infallible sign that something big was happening.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of crows, people tended to predicate the same traits that they did of Asians.... Crows were commendably intelligent, and forever busy, but you couldn't tell them apart and their motives were inscrutable. But living inside of his own head, Corvus well knew his own motives. There was nothing wrong with those motives and he didn't need to justify them to anyone else.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Moab hoaxers had inoculated the [Internet] with a ready-made hoax narrative that was obviously ridiculous, and tailor-made to appeal to the vociferous citizens of Crazytown. Right now everyone's uncle Harry—the angry truther at Thanksgiving dinner—was typing as fast as he could with the caps lock key in effect.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Stand-up peeing in a long flowing garment could lead to various mishaps.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was no one moment when they definitely crossed over into Ameristan. The closest thing to a formal ceremony was when Tom pulled over onto the gravel shoulder of a two-lane road between cornfields and yanked off the vehicles' license plates—which was evidently held on with magnets... Then the caravan was back on the road. “When in Rome,” Julian said... About an hour out of Des Moines, they did pass by a tiny sign—Sharpie on plywood—bearing what might have been the burning-cross logo of the Levitican Church.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ted has normal-people teeth because he is old and grew up before this part of the world got Facebooked. After that, the people with education fled to places like Ames, Des Moines, Iowa City. Which includes dentists. A few mainline churches used to run charity dental clinics where you could get a bad tooth pulled, or whatever, but those are being chased away by these people.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s been all kinds of confusion about the Leviticans. Some kind of imagined link to the Ku Klux Klan.” “Maybe it’s because of the burning crosses,” Phil suggested, deadpan. “Supposedly the KKK burned crosses,” Ted said with a roll of the eyes. “There’s no ‘supposedly’ about it,” Anne-Solenne started in. “What are you even—” But Sophia silenced her with a hand on the arm. There was no point. “If that is even true, it has no connection to our burning crosses, which have a completely different significance,” Ted announced.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“None of them said a word until they had parked in the Walmart's lot. “I am gonna buy some flowers,” Sophia said, “to put on the grave. We’re almost there. Within the blast radius of this.” She nodded toward the front of the superstore. “Blast radius?" “It’s only ten miles farther. Any retail base in the actual town will have been obliterated by this. So if we want to buy anything, we have to buy it here.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They laid in a course for Moab, which ought to have been as simple as laying in a course for any other place. But a little warning did come up on Sophia's UI, letting her know that the existence of Moab was in question. Opinions differed as to whether it had been burned off the surface of the world by a nuclear blast twelve years ago. ... “It’s easy to forget,” Sophia remarked, “that there are millions of people who really don’t believe that Moab still exists. But when you’re here, you see the REMEMBER MOAB stickers all over the place.”
Neal Stephenson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source