c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Why?” Riko asked.“For the war. We will hit them before they have a chance to hit us.”She was terrified. “What? No. We can’t start a war.”Oshiro grinned. “Don’t you see? The war has already started. We’re going to end it.
— Charles Nall, Orchestra of Shadows
There's not a hell of a lot of difference between bravery and stupidity." - Commander Boaz Aurigae
— Charles Nall, Broken Horizon
They say it's always darkest before the dawn and it was pitch black by the time I arrived at the Marriott. However I still had a few bullets left for my deadbeat uncle that tried to stab me in the back.
— Angel Ramon Medina, Framed: The Second Book of the Thousand Years War
Science Fiction is a safe, fertile arena in which to rehearse the potential scientific facts of tomorrow
— Stewart Stafford
You can't change physics
—  but you can ride it like a bull.
Suspicion leads to bias, and bias doesn't lead to truth.
— Blake Crouch, Dark Matter
Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.
— H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
Suddenly, I’m struck by the magnitude of the moment. Hurtling through the air becomes freeing, not terrifying. This time last year, I was suffocating within the confines of my life. I would’ve done anything to escape. That my life has come full circle is as exhilarating as it is scary. Life is for living. For moments like this.
— Siobhan Davis, Saven Defiance
Thought moves like a dissociation of leaves across a lawn in a breeze.
— Greg Bear, Blood Music
Reputation never has very much to do with reality. I could name half a dozen paragons of virtue that are horrible, small-souled, evil people. And some of the best men I know, you'd walk out of the room if you heard their names. No one on the screen is who they are when you breathe their air.Chrisjen Avasarala
— James S.A. Corey, Caliban's War
In some sense, we’re all cavemen—we can’t imagine anything more frightening than a ghost or a vampire. But the violation of the principle of causality—that’s actually much scarier than a whole herd of ghosts… or Rubinstein’s monsters… or is that Wallenstein?”“Frankenstein.
— Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic
We were created to make the impossible possible.
— Vista Townsend, Synthetic Genesis
She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers lightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten double-edged, four-centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the burgundy nails.She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.
— William Gibson, Neuromancer
They compose poems to their knives.
— Frank Herbert, Dune
It is the bullet you don’t hear that gets you.
— Greg Bear, Blood Music
When it becomes acceptable to kill another man or woman, childhood dies.” whispered Laurence. “When it becomes acceptable to kill a child…humanity dies.
— Kipjo Kenyatta Ewers, Eye of Ra
Even thought you can't see it, my son, things are changing. Things ALWAYS change, given enough time and pressure. The very thought of that is scary to some, but change is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It is a simple fact of life.
— EXO Books, The Last Day of Captain Lincoln
How long you been in the infantry, sir? Anything under ten miles counts as 'almost there'.
— Henry V. O'Neil, Dire Steps
Good,” said the First Speaker. “And tell me, what do you think of all this. A finished work of art, is it not?”“Definitely!”“Wrong! It is not.” This, with sharpness. “It is the first lesson you must unlearn. The Seldon Plan is neither complete nor correct. Instead, it is merely the best that could be done at the time. Over a dozen generations of men have pored over these equations, worked at them, taken them apart to the last decimal place, and put them together again. They’ve done more than that. They’ve watched nearly four hundred years pass and against the predictions and equations, they’ve checked reality, and they have learned.
— Isaac Asimov, Second Foundation
You know what all the plutonium can buy me?" "Yeah it'll buy you one hell of a funeral!" Angel says angrily to man who was behind everything!
— Angel Ramon Medina
If only she could jump into the flyer and scurry back across the mountains but she had work to do and a planet to save.
— Mary Brock Jones, Torn
...If we can achieve this, then one day whole rooms, buildings, perhaps even bridges may generate their own energy, funnel it to where it is needed, detect damage, and self-heal. If this seems like science fiction, bear in mind that it is only what living materials do already.
— Mark Miodownik, Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World
life is a dream
— Dépé, Du rififi en Bretagne
This is what I hate most about guys like you. You didn't even try.
— Henry V. O'Neil, Dire Steps
The oceans are full of surprises!
— Louis P Kicha, The Deadly Ocean
Lieutenant Mortas is the black sheep of the family--I thought you knew that.
— Henry V. O'Neil, Dire Steps
It’s called the Pyxis,” said Raven. “Don’t let the fancy name intimidate you. It just means ‘box’ in one of those Old Earth languages, Roman or Spanish or Klingon…
— Philip Reeve, Railhead
She returned his salute with a sly smile—a rare enough event that he eyed her suspiciously.“Admiral Solovy, are you wearing a shit-eating grin because we won here today, or is there something else I should know?”“There’s something else you should know.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
You know, the way I feel, if I read a science fiction book by a new writer which is a lot better than what I do, instead of going on a bummer right away and saying, “Oh Christ, I’m obsolete, I’m outdated, I’ve lost it.” I have this tremendous sense of joy. I don’t have to write all the great goddamn science fiction in the world. Somebody else is going to carry this torch. It’s such a relief to sit with my feet up on the wall and to know that if I never wrote another book science fiction is going ahead.
— Philip K. Dick
He had allowed the advertisers to multiply his wants; he had learned to equate happiness with possessions, and prosperity with money to spend in a shop.
— Aldous Huxley
She placed a hand on his arm. “It’s not our fault, not truly. It’s theirs. The killers. They’re the ones who—”“Get down!” Caleb collided with her back, sending her crashing to the floor hard enough to knock the air from her chest. The windows shattered and the sounds of a city overtaken by chaos rushed in.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
The numbness will go away, he thought. It'll take time, but I'll do it, or Faber will do it for me. Someone somewhere will give me back the old face and the old hands the way they were. Even the smile, he thought, the old burnt-in smile, that's gone. I'm lost without it
— Ray Bradbury
Everybody wants to own the end of the world.
— Don DeLillo
This virtual world is sparsely populated but you may find some of my soldiers that were able to get in to the world who may prove to be a big help in your quest. That is if they haven’t been captured by the gloobas or turn into traitors themselves. - Elder God "The Thousand Years War
— Angel Ramon Medina, The Thousand Years War
Never give up trust what your heart says!” - Angel's Father when Angel is escaping the glooba base
— Angel Ramon Medina, The Thousand Years War
Chaos that closely resembled panic awaited. Shuttles raced to the presumed safety of the planet below while fighters crisscrossed the perimeter of the station. Platoon-sized formations of frigates and several cruisers formed up and accelerated away. To where the approaching attackers were located?She didn’t give a damn what her mother said in public. This was a bona fide insurrection.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
From up here, the city below looked calm. Peaceful. Serene.It was a lie. Mia could feel the lie in her bones, in the foreboding creeping along the fine hairs on her skin. But mostly she could feel it in her head, where preparations were underway across Romane to meet the coming chaos.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
It took me a beat down to execute you Angel but the pleasure will be all mines! - Warden Pinnacle From the book Framed: The Second Book Of The Thousand Years War.
— Angel Ramon Medina
There were things she wanted to say, but they were all jumbled up in her head and if she tried they’d come out backwards and mixed up and wrong. There were things she needed to say, but she was hanging on by a fraying thread and feared if she tried the thread would break, sending her plummeting alone into the abysm.There were things she would have to say, but they should wait for later. After.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
When my stomach grumbled, I filled up on hamburgers, hot dogs, gyros, tacos, jerk chicken, pizza, and a side salad because I was watching my figure
— Y.A. Marks, Class Zero
The good thing about science is that its true whether or not you believe in it
— Waqas Bin Ehsan
In order to be a better writer, one must always write.
— Safa Shaqsy, The Finite
New York City is finished," he said. "They can't keep order there, and you can't have business without order. It'll take a hundred years to sort things out and get it all going again."	"What do you hear of the U.S. government? I said. "We don't have electricity an hour a month anymore and there's nothing on the air but the preachers anyway."	"Well, I hear that this Harvey Albright pretends to be running things out of Minneapolis now. It was Chicago, but that may have gone by the boards. Congress hasn't met since twelve twenty-one." Ricketts said, using a common shorthand for the destruction of Washington a few days before Christmas some years back. "We're still fighting skirmishes with Mexico. The Everglades are drowning. Trade is becoming next to impossible, from everything I can tell, and business here is drying up. It all seems like a bad dream. The future sure isn't what it used to be, is it?"	"We believe in the future, sir. Only it's not like the world we've left behind," Joseph said.	"How's that?"	"We're building our own New Jerusalem up the river. it's a world made by hand, now, one stone at a time, one board at a time, one hope at a time, one soul at a time. . .
— James Howard Kunstler, World Made by Hand
The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.
— E.M. Forster
I’ll ask you to look at the ships arrayed against you and consider what weaponry they might possess. Weaponry strong enough to crack your hulls? I know what weaponry you bring to bear, and I assure you it will not crack ours. “Are you willing to risk the lives of thousands under your command to find out? Are you willing to risk your own life?”The silence hung across space like a shroud.“This is not over, Admiral Solovy.”“That is the first true thing you’ve said today.
— G.S. Jennsen, Abysm
She had been too well-trained to allow her emotions to take control of her at the time, but the feelings were too strong to quietly recede into a regimen of critical thought. Deep inside her they stewed, logic and reason slowly boiling off. Reduced to their essence, her feelings became more potent, condensed into an emotional certainty. I should have saved them.
— Matt K. Turner, GENESIS
I am your enemy. Your enemy in this world. The whole universe is filled with mankind, and there are many planets out there where men forget they are a part of something larger, greater. And I am only one among many who have come to remind you planetary retrogrades of precisely that. You are not some indigenous species of this world. You are only one outreaching hand of mankind.
— Bruno Goncalves, Descent into Mayhem
Nobody ever kills everybody anywhere, big man. Somebody always gets away.
— Henry V. O'Neil, Glory Main
Everything I do nowWas once an unremembered dream.-Spoken by Dr. Perry after return from the chrysalis
— Don  Murphy, EPOCH
It is important to continue working toward creating the archetype of the self-rescuing princess, empowering girls through depictions of women in STEM.
— S.Ragle
We’re all in outer space, Jerry, and we’re in color. NBC claims to be the first full- color network, so let’s prove it for them. When you light the sets, throw wild colors in—magenta, red, green, any color you can find—especially behind the actors when they’re in a close shot. Be dramatic. In fact, go overboard. Backlight the women and make them more beautiful. Take some chances. No one can tell you that’s not the way the future will look.
— Robert H. Justman
Stories are where memories go when they're forgotten...
— The 13th Doctor
So a scientist and an engineer are tossed into separate rooms, stocked with tools and parts, and told that they aren't allowed out until they've produced a working prototype for a radio receiver. After two days, the scientist has covered the walls in scribbling and looks like a mad man, raving about how not only is it impossible to build a receiver with the parts given but that he's proven that radio is theoretically impossible anyway. When they check on the engineer, they find that he'd built the receiver in less than a day, fashioned a crude speaker and antenna, and had found a radio broadcast he liked and hadn't bothered to tell them he'd finished.
— Joshua Dalzelle
People feared what they did not understand, and they without a doubt did not understand her. Those who believed they did least of all. She was something new.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
2 SECONDSHe was on her in an instant to brace her against the wall. She kicked and clawed at her unseen attacker, skin and irises ablaze in caustic gold. She fired anew, and the point-blank shot broke through his defenses, grazing his hip. He ignored the harsh sting to bring his Daemon up between them.1 SECOND
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
Alex screamed and lashed out at the points of light from within, desperate for something tangible to rage against. Caleb wrapped his arms around her from behind and coaxed her out while glaring at the Metigen in loathing.Then he lessened his hold on her to a single hand. Together they turned their backs on the alien and began walking away.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
Many reviews are useless because, while purporting to condemn the book, they only reveal the reviewer's dislike of the kind to which it belongs. Let bad tragedies be censured by those who love tragedy, and bad detective stories by those who love the detective story. Then we shall learn their real faults. Otherwise we shall find epics blamed for not being novels, farces for not being high comedies, novels by James for lacking the swift action of Smollett. Who wants to hear a particular claret abused by a fanatical teetotaller, or a particular woman by a confirmed misogynist?
— C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories
Imagine that every man’s mind is an island, surrounded by ocean. Each seems isolated, yet in reality all are linked by the bedrock from which they spring. If the ocean were to vanish, that would be the end of the islands. They would all be part of one continent, but the individuality would have gone
— Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End
The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.
— Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
Everything in life is one way or another created by thoughts, ideas. The thoughts can be chaotic and wild and create a lot of pain and trouble, or they can be organized to the last minute detail and make something beautiful and perfect. Your life has its structure. It is composed of things that are happening in it. All those events are reflections of your intentions. Things and occurrences are shaped according to your thoughts. Is there some confusion in your life? There is likely confusion in your mind. Are you experiencing joy, peace and beauty? Well, then the same are your wishes.
— Daniel Stangar, The Telepathic People: Hidden Power
Crushed sandstone sifted through Caleb’s fingers, insubstantial as dust. A breeze caught the debris mid-fall and spirited it away before it could join the ashes blanketing the ground. He stopped in the middle of what had once been a street, his arms pulled in at his sides, his fists balled in barely restrained fury.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
The science fiction author, H.G. Wells was an avid supporter of eugenics and a believer in a hierarchy of the races.
— A.E. Samaan
When she sat down on the tile next to him, unafraid, his kaleidoscope senses drank in the years that had been printed onto her mind before she was old enough to remember, and he told her a story, projecting into her darkness sensations of light and color and shape, butterflies swirling like silk-spun gold out through a window that opened to a big green field in the days before the bomb.
— Mel Paisley, Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology
I think of us as a people who inoculate ourselves against a plague of insanity with a powerful anti-idiotic called science fiction. I think sf is a literature which by its very nature requires that you be at least a little sane, that you know at least a little something. You must abdicate the right to be ignorant in order to enjoy science fiction, which most people are unwilling to do; and you must learn, if not actually how to think things through, at least what the trick looks like when it's done. Frequent injections will keep a lot of madness away.
— Spider Robinson, Time Travellers Strictly Cash
Marvin: Look, look, no, just think. They left me - an ordinary, menial robot - to stop you - a gigantic, heavy-duty battle machine - whilst they ran off to save themselves... What do you think they would leave me with? Frogstar Robot: Well, er, something pretty damn devastating I would expect. Marvin: Expect? Oh yes, expect. I'll tell you what they gave me to protect myself with, shall I? Frogstar Robot: Yes all right. Marvin: Nothing. Frogstar Robot: What? Marvin: Nothing at all. Not an electronic sausage. Frogstar Robot: Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit!
— Douglas Adams
We’ll go along with it for now. Valkyrie, keep close watch and be ready to swoop to the rescue.”‘Hopefully swooping will not be required, nor rescue. But I am ready to do both.’He squeezed her hand. “Alex?”“I’m ready, too.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
The universe is not ordered, and it will not become so simply because one wishes it. The universe is chaos made manifest. The military does a fine job of creating an illusion of structure, of dependable rules to provide an answer for every situation. “But it is only an illusion, one which on its best days holds the chaos at bay.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
The alien reached out her hands to hold Alex’s tightly. “Please. Some of what I want to express, it may be difficult to locate the right words.”“Of course.”Pure alabaster eyes stared back at her. “Child, there is a hole in your mind.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
…inside of a year, almost all of the stuff of which you were made got regularly switched out for other stuff, as you ate and drank and breathed, and yet if you said you had the same identity you did a year ago, no one would think to call you a liar. Being is always becoming; people change and stay the same. What is true for bodies is also true for selves: even the most honest person has many faces, none of which is false.
— Dexter Palmer
She climbed into the shuttle and got in his personal space. “Who are you working for?”The man spat in her face.She rolled her eyes and wiped the spittle off her cheek. Then she punched him square across the jaw before grabbing him by the throat. “WHO are you working for?
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
I know something about a lot of things," she countered evenly. "That's why you're grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?" - Mara Jade
— Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire
Children are turning themselves into monsters and, quite frankly, it is your fault. You initiated the creation of this technology, then you allowed it to slip through your fingers.”Miriam’s jaw tightened. “I disagree, but now is the least optimal time imaginable for assigning blame. People are dying, and I will not stand around debating semantics with you while they are.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
They turned on themselves, like a feverish wheel, all tumbling spokes. Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass.
— Ray Bradbury
You ask me to make peace with the monsters who did this?”She didn’t even look around at ‘this.’ “Yes. The alternative is extinction. There’s no coming back from that—no new weapon to fire when no one is left and you’ve no universe left to fire it in.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
In the distance Richard could see the skyscrapers of Los Angeles rising out of the ocean; barnacle crusted concrete and steel emerging from crashing waves. Once a symbol of economic might, they were now a macabre monument to the mortality of man.
— Alexander Ferrick, HACK3R
Any Earth Alliance military personnel who, whether through affirmative acts or by inaction, assist these seditionists are guilty of treason and will be held accountable. To all present military personnel: you have five minutes to respond accordingly.”She chuckled. “Bet more than one scuffle just broke out on board those ships.”“Any second thoughts?”Her head shook tersely. “We’re all traitors now.”“It’s not traitorous to want to be free.
— G.S. Jennsen, Apogee
She was here, and it was now; and as the emperor's instructors had so often drummed into her, the first item of business was to fit into her surroundings. And that meant not looking like an escapee from the medical ward
— Timothy Zahn, The Last Command
One of the first rules the Emperor had drummed into her [Mara Jade] so long ago was to blend in as best she could with her surroundings
— Timothy Zahn, Dark Force Rising
He pointed to the burning building as sirens heralded the approach of emergency personnel. “This is your job—this is your life. Blood and death and pain and vengeance and justice. And sometimes it sucks, but it’s worth it.”Caleb sighed, but not in resignation. “I know this is the job, and it is worth it. But I refuse to believe it’s my life. Not only and not forever.”Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose and waved dismissively with his other hand. “F***ing romantic.
— G.S. Jennsen, Solatium
But she wasn't a serving girl in a Phorliss cantina this time, or a come-up flector for a swoop gang on Caprioril, or even a hyperdrive mechanic stuck in the backwater of the Ison Corridor. She was second in command to the most powerful smuggler in the galaxy, with the kind of resources and mobility she hadn't had since the death of the Emperor. [p] The kind of resources that would let her find Luke Skywalker again. And kill him
— Timothy Zahn, Dark Force Rising
These animals are genetically engineered to be unable to survive in the real world. They can only live here in Jurassic Park. They are not free at all. They are essentially our prisoners.
— Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
Intellectuals always make a fuss about nothing.
— Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem
You happened to me," she told him, her voice more fatigued than embittered. "You came out of a grubby sixth-rate farm on a tenth-rate planet, and destroyed my life." - Mara Jade
— Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire
Once, I believed that space couldhave no power over faith, just as I believed the heavens declared the glory of God’shandwork. Now I have seen that handwork, and my faith is sorely troubled.
— Arthur C. Clarke, The Star
Know your territory was the first rule that had been drilled into her...and the first thing she'd done after establishing herself in Karrde's organization had been to do precisely that. She'd studied the aeriel maps of the forest and surrounding territory; had taken long walks, in both daylight and at night, to familiarize herself with the sights and sounds; had sought out and killed several vornskrs and other predators to learn the fastest ways of taking them down; had even talked one of Karrde's people into running bio tests on a crateload of native plants to find out which were edible and which weren't. Outside the forest, she knew something about the settlers, understood the local politics, and had stashed a small but adequate part of her earnings out where she could get hold of it. [p] More than anyone in Karrde's organization, she was equipped to survive outside the confines of his encampment. So why was she trying so hard to get back there?" - Heir to the Empire p 270-271 re: Mara Jade
— Timothy Zahn
Her perception was propelled backward, as if it were being pulled into a vortex. She slammed into her body, and her eyes flew open with a gasp.“Alex?”She sat straight up in the chair and grabbed Caleb by the shoulders. “We have to save them.
— G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
If Jack had followed him instead of trying to reclaim his car, he would undoubtedly have voiced his disappointment that they were not yet shooting laser cannons. Frankly, Richard thought dodging the police’s bullets would be problematic enough.
— Alexander Ferrick, HACK3R
The materials are mostly from living beings - living human beings. They need to be alive to extract the necessary materials.
— Brad McKinniss, Beast Machine
Sci-fi doesn't show me much about alien's nature but shows a lot about North American nature.
— Robin Sacredfire
Sometimes, during the lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with Man; it was as lonely and meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon.
— Arthur C. Clarke
Hank looked upwards for a second or two and said, “Hmm—well, in the Japanese way, if we don’t know for sure, we always tell the person the worst possible result. That way, when they find out the actual case, they can only have the good feeling.
— Richard Cezar, In The Robes of God
...Changelessness is decay.""A paradox. There is no decay without a change for the worse.""Changelessness is a change for the worse...
— Isaac Asimov, Robots and Empire
The most romantic creation to have come out of regret is time-travel
— Preeti Bhonsle
I’ve been thinking about it, since you said it,” said Seivarden. No, said Mercy of Kalr. “And I’ve concluded that I don’t want to be a captain. But I find I like the thought that I could be.
— Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy
But when there's no hope to be found anywhere, even the tiniest chance is worth taking.
— Amie Kaufman
Laser beams slid around them, spurts of light sinking through the darkness, eventually touching the stars or lighting the water for a moment on their death ride to the murky bottom.
— Dean Koontz, Star Quest / Doom of the Green Planet
You will soon learn that there ARE no strange stars, no alien skies"- No?"Only skies and stars, in all their varieties. Each one with its own flavour, and all flavours good"- Now YOU think like a tree. Flavours! Of skies!"I have tasted the heat of many stars, and all of them were sweet
— Orson Scott Card, Xenocide
The antagonists of finance’s future, the diaboli ex machina, may have no face at all.
— Usman W. Chohan
Everything in this world, as well as the world itself, strives for balance and harmony. Electron reaches proton, male tends to female, light replaces darkness, life is balanced by death, and vice versa. And evil on one scale will inevitably lead to the appearance of good on the other.
— Alexandr Iscenco
Life gives only the canvas, but it is you, who chooses the colors.
— Alexandr Iscenco, Чудовище: Лезвие Тьмы
I’ve always wondered about your name,” Misha said to Hijja while scraping a bit of space gunk from the window of their spaceship.
— Mads Sukalikar, Do Virgins Taste Better? And Other Tales of Whimsy
Clear skies, cousin". Good luck, he means. There are never clear skies on Avon, no blue, no stars. But we don't give up hope, and we use those words to remind ourselves. Clear skies will come, one day.
— Amie Kaufman
What did you do for them, Bone? Teach them to read and write? Help them rebuild, give the, Christ, help restore a culture? Did you remember to warn the, that it could never be Eden?
— Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
Taking a shower often solved problems for her. She would find herself with thoughts that seemed to come from outside her, thoughts that would question decisions or offer suggestions or just consider life hazily in a way that made it seem like the thoughts could not possibly be her own.
— Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
We're looking for quantum donuts," said Mike.
— Peter Clines, The Fold
I believe that humans are on an evolutionary path where brain usage will escalate beyond the current 10% standard, and as we evolve, so will our “ESP” abilities. Today, more and more children are born already possessing these abilities, and it’s appropriate we adjust to the new world reality already happening.
— Tessie Jayme, Peace Warriors of the Galaxy: Journey to Lyrica: Book 1
Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.
— Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
I'm so close to Schiaparelli I can taste it. I guess it would taste like sand, mostly, but that's not the point.
— Andy Weir, The Martian
I have no objection to the expression of political opinions in SF if they are an integral part of the story structure. I don't at all appreciate their intrusion for the purpose of converting a story into a political tract, because I consider that intellectually insulting.
— Roger Zelazny
He's heard tales of the Clone Wars -tales spoken by his own father. He knows how war goes. It's not many wars, but just one, drawn out again and again, cut up into slices so it seems more manageable.
— Chuck Wendig, Star Wars - Aftermath
Fear mankind most when he fights with a consuming passion for what he perceives to be true." ~ Demo Cratia.
— Farah Evers, Origins
At the entrance of the Führerbunker, a dandelion pushed through the crack between cobblestones. The cadet did not notice that he stepped on it as they entered the bunker. A dark cloud of smoke rose from a burning ministry. Zeller fantasized that the filth that surrounded him was cleansed. He saw himself, a portly and tailored leader in a white uniform with gold epaulets, buttons, and stripes. He imagined himself in an immaculate, white city in Antarctica.
— Paul Majkut, Stench of the Word
Dying was never as hard as having to live again.
— Lynn Vroman, Energy Reborn
Dina, I’m bored,” Caldenia announced.Too bad. I guaranteed her safety, not entertainment. “What about your game?”Her Grace gave me a shrug. “I’ve beaten it five times on the Deity setting. I’ve reducedParis to ashes because Napoleon annoyed me. I’ve eradicated Gandhi. I’ve crushed George Washington. Empress Wu had potential, so I eliminated her before we even cleared Bronze Age. The Egyptians are my pawns. I dominate the planet. Oddly, I find myself mildly fascinated by Genghis Khan. A shrewd and savage warrior, possessing a certain magnetism. I left him with a single city, and I periodically make ridiculous demands that I know he can’t meet so I can watch him squirm.
— Ilona Andrews, Sweep in Peace
. . . hated each other so much their feud had become legendary. Half the jokes in the galaxy started with “a vampire and an otrokar walk into a bar….
— Ilona Andrews, Sweep in Peace
Science fiction invites the writer to grandly explore alternative worlds and pose questions about meaning and destiny. Inventing plausible new realities is what the genre is all about. One starts from a hypothesis and then builds out the logic, adding detail and incident to give substance to imaginary structures. In that respect, science fiction and theology have much in common.
— Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
I’m conscious of race whenever I’m writing, just as I’m conscious of class, religion, human psychology, politics — everything that makes up the human experience. I don’t think I can do a good job if I’m not paying attention to what’s meaningful to people, and in American culture, there isn’t anything that informs human interaction more than the idea of race.
— Dwayne McDuffie
Science. They were all the science experiments of a maniacal government bent on controlling the universe.
— Lynn Vroman, Energy Reborn
The burned corpses of the doppelgängers of Hitler and Braun, numerous false leads, meticulously orchestrated evidence, misdirection, and other diversions now being set in place will confuse the Americans and Russians, Zeller knew, and, in the end, put them at each other’s throats.
— Paul Majkut
Later," Amos said, "when you're wishing we had this stuff, I am going to merciless in my mockery. And then we'll die.
— James S.A. Corey
There was a tempest brewing in his eyes that I wasn’t sure I would survive if I stayed in his gaze too long. But he told me with his sure hold that I could trust him and not to run before I’d given him a chance to show him what it was like to ride out the storm.
— Shelly Crane, The Other Side Of Gravity
If democracy and self-rule are the fundamentals, then why should people give up these rights when they enter their workplace? In politics we fight like tigers for freedom, for the right to elect our leaders, for freedom of movement, choice of residence, choice of what work to pursue— control of our lives, in short. And then we wake up in the morning and go to work, and all those rights disappear. We no longer insist on them. And so for most of the day we return to feudalism. That is what capitalism is— a version of feudalism in which capital replaces land, and business leaders replace kings. But the hierarchy remains. And so we still hand over our lives’ labor, under duress, to feed rulers who do no real work.
— Kim Stanley Robinson
I am preprogrammed, acting on impulse, dumping a vast memory into a whirling pool and somehow bringing order to it. Building a complex web. I am the spider. This is my venomous bite. I will make them see their folly.
— A.L. Davroe, Nexis
It was killing him, seeing her this way. She was not meant to be uncertain, timid or fearful; the woman he knew exuded confidence so fiercely it might as well be a damn spiritual aura. He needed to fix this. “It’s time to adjust your perspective. You want to show the politicians on Earth they don’t rule the galaxy? Well, let’s show them.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
Are you just a car salesman or are you a poet too?” “I've never been accused of poetry before.
— Robert Charles Wilson, A Bridge of Years
It felt somehow comforting to return to the sparkling lake tucked into the mountains on Portal Prime. But why, when everything about Mesme made her the antithesis of comfortable?Because here was where desperation had become hope. Where helplessness had become purpose.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
Semantics, Admiral. I’d appreciate an honest answer.”“I’d appreciate a multitude of honest answers, but I rarely expect to receive them.” Miriam sighed; the verbal tete-a-tete was growing tiresome. Time to bring an end to it with, ironically, honesty.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
Evening had turned the sky a deep persimmon. The remaining sunlight enriched the colors of the ubiquitous flowers and foliage to even greater vibrancy, as if the saturation filter had been notched up several levels.Caleb noted all this in passing as he strode deliberately forward. He didn’t know how he was going to do this, only that he had to make the attempt.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
A wispy murmur in the blackness. Blackness, where before there was only nothingness. It was dark, inky and thick, but there now existed the palpable sense of tangibility. She gasped in alarm, but no sound came out of her throat. "Where am I?," she shouted, but no words made it past her lips.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
I believe my judgment has never been clearer. I have seen firsthand their potential, their strength of will, in a way you have not.”“You have loosed a chaotic, unstable variable into the Mosaic. They will destroy everything.”“It is a risk. They also may save everything.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
Now logic is a wonderful thing but it has, as the process of evolution discovered, certain drawbacks. Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else which thinks at least as logically as it does.
— Douglas Adams
That tank," Bucktooth pointed at the gas gauge on the dashboard of the decidedly unfredneck-like '65 Dodge Dart, "is almost empty. We ain't going much farther."	"Indeed it is." A solemn Phosphate agreed. "I suggest we stop the car and weigh our options."	"What options?" Professor Buckley asked. "Why do-that is- we've been traveling up and down this path for over an hour without seeing anyone or encountering anything. Even the doughnut shop cannot be relocated. In light of this, what options do we have?"	It was difficult to argue with the ex-history teacher's typically alarmist position. Brisbane's reliable old automobile had indeed been expending its remaining fuel supply in what seemed to be a hopeless effort to exit the unnamed dirt path. After leaving the doughnut shop and the blonde presidential descendant who worked there, they'd been unable to find DeMohrenschildt Lane again, or any other side street.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
I let myself flop - so gently, so slowly - into my one real chair and tried to make myself understand that I was on the doorstep of the universe.
— Frederik Pohl
It’s a bizarre act of self-mutilation to say that ‘I don’t get on with science fiction and fantasy, therefore I’m never going to read any’. What a shame. All those great books that you’re cutting yourself off from.
— David Mitchell
Waldo nodded and looked at the policeman's face. Somehow the water that was dripping from the bill of his cap made him appear almost human. Nah, Waldo thought, it would take a lot more than water to wash that look off.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
At Snortin' Reformatory, a notorious Washington, D.C. jail located in the northern Virginia suburbs, The Afro-Anarchists were being thrown into a cell. It was a situation that the three of them, like many young black males in the D.C. area, had long ago come to expect as a rite of passage. As the door slammed shut behind them, Bucktooth spoke. "Man, Phosphate, they didn't read us our rights or nothin'." "Yeah, Phos,” Fontaine chimed in, "I didn't think they had to beat us, neither. And whoever heard of being charged with singing too loud and off-key in a public establishment? I don't believe there is no kind of law for that shit.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
The right place; that was what he was looking for. The right place. Place was all important, place meant everything. Take this rock…"Take you, rock," he said. He squinted at it.Ah yes, here we have the nasty big flat rock, sitting doing nothing, just amoral and dull, and it sits like an island in the polluted pool. The pool is a tiny lake on the little island, and the island is in a drowned crater. The crater is a volcanic crater, the volcano forms part of an island in a big inland sea. The inland sea is like a giant lake on a continent and the continent is like an island sitting in the seas of the planet. The planet is like an island on the sea of space within its system, and the system floats within the cluster, which is like an island in the sea of the galaxy, which is like an island in the archipelago of of its local group, which is an island within the universe; the universe is like an island floating in a sea of space in the Continua, and they float like islands in the Reality, and…But down through the Continua, the Universe, the Local Group, the Galaxy, the Cluster, the System, the Planet, the Continent, the Island, the Lake, the Island… the rock remained. AND THAT MEANT THE ROCK, THE CRAPPY AWFUL ROCK HERE WAS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, THE CONTINUA, THE WHOLE REALITY!
— Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons
She laughed again. "You must go to the movies a lot. This is not Dracula, and the villain isn't Bela Lugosi. They took a good friend away from me, and they know I know. But, at any rate, I did try to find her boyfriend the day after she disappeared. I knew where he lived and I went there. His landlord said he'd left unexpectedly and he didn't know where he'd gone. Lucky for me he wasn't there, I suppose." She took another deep breath and squinted at her watch. "Oh, my Lord. I didn't realize it was that late. I really must be going.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
To write a novel is to dream while awake, then express the dream to the reader in an absorbing way. The road leading from the writer's inner world to the readers' is paved with prose.
— Alan Joshua, The SHIVA Syndrome
Who originates the latest slang terms that are, seemingly overnight, known to every black youth across the country?
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
Waldo, I say-that is-aren't you tired, my boy?" Professor Buckley, suppressing a yawn, was unaccustomed to others matching his wakefulness wink for wink, as it were, and seemed jealous of the competition Waldo presented in that regard. 	"Who can sleep?" Waldo replied. "We're on another of these crazy roads, we can't find the interstate...."	"Yes, I suppose you're right." The Professor interrupted, taking off his thick spectacles and polishing them on his bright tie. "I, on the other hand, never sleep, as I'm sure you're aware." 	Waldo smiled. The Professor had little in life to be vain about, and he wasn't going to stop him from expressing a little pride now and then.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
I may not have believed in lady luck, but I believed in her fucking sister, irony. That bitch was out to nail me to wall." ~ Caleb
— Pippa DaCosta, Girl From Above: Trapped
But when she finally did look up, I realized my fatal mistake. That by not leaping for her when she jumped, she thought that I no longer wanted to catch her.
— Shelly Crane, The Other Side Of Gravity
I frankly expected a far more negative reaction from you on discovering…” she glanced around the lab “…the situation. Why are you helping?”“I’m not helping—I’m merely not hindering in as strenuous a fashion as I am able.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
He checked her over while mentally checking himself. “Environment suits sealed up. Breather masks in hand. Daemons. Blades. Transmitters. Healthy respect for the adversary—you’ve got that, right?”One corner of her mouth curled up. “Absolutely.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
I like fish
—  no fish business for me.Tuball's say. Enzo's Lemorine pet.
It is practical, but that doesn't mean it's right.
— Pittacus Lore, The Fall of Five
Trust is dangerous.
— Pittacus Lore, Eight's Origin
If there was anything the last year had taught her—if there was anything Caleb had taught her, the Metigen War had taught her—it was that perspective was everything. If you wanted to understand your enemy, you must understand that they were the hero in their own story.
— G.S. Jennsen, Sidespace
There's no set future, only the one we make.
— Pittacus Lore
The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed yet.
— William Gibson
Will Cato's alien buddies come en masse and invade Earth? He's not sure but he'll try to keep humanity in the loop.
— John    Hopkins, Lost Cactus: The First Treasury
Today, religion is systematized, formalized group worship. It’s packaged. We don’t live the divine any longer, we only hear or read about it.
— Alan Joshua, The SHIVA Syndrome
Lost Cactus is a cornucopia of sights, sounds and inhabitants completely foreign to a little squirrel like Sammy, but attempting to set him straight will only complicate matters.
— John    Hopkins, Lost Cactus: The First Treasury
Ty is green but never with envy. Best of all, he's usually available to help move a heavy piece of furniture.
— John    Hopkins, Lost Cactus: The First Treasury
All of life is a test.
— Pittacus Lore, Five's Betrayal
It didn't take a synthetic mind to decipher Caleb Shepperd, just a human one." ~ #1001
— Pippa DaCosta, Girl From Above: Trapped
Bentley is a good bee with a shaky sense of direction and an appetite for mayhem. Just don't call him a drone. He hates that.
— John    Hopkins, Lost Cactus: The First Treasury
Lost Cactus is simply an urban myth.
— John    Hopkins, Lost Cactus: The First Treasury
I have come to the conclusion that there has never been an honest investigation by any authoritative body in the history of the world.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
Waldo inhaled deeply, staring at the ceiling. It was at times like this that he was at his worst. His mind, while indecisive, was also capable of producing the most detailed, fantastic daydreams imaginable, and with the mysterious disappearance of his grandfather as fodder, his speculations grew even more intense and far-fetched than usual. On the other hand, the logical part of his brain, underdeveloped as it was, went almost entirely untapped in such a situation. Waldo was literally frozen into inaction by his chemical makeup, and this was apparent in the number of cigarettes he lit, the number of sighs he expelled, and the number of times his helpless fingers alternated between nervously tapping the coffee table and running through his unkempt hair. All that night, Waldo remained awake, deep in unproductive thought, routinely walking back and forth from the living room to the front porch, where he would take a seat in the old-fashioned swing and smoke heavily. The blissful suburban setting, especially on spring nights like this, when the crickets chirped so lustily, and the porch swing creaked so reassuringly in the warm breeze, was perfect for conjuring up bold new fantasies.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
The craving to touch her is like an itch I can't scratch.
— Siobhan Davis, Destiny Rising
Everything is About To Change.
— Chris Mentillo
This girl holds my heart in her hand and she's squishing it to nothing with her confession.
— Siobhan Davis, Destiny Rising
I think best on two wheels
— Kenneth L. Decroo, Almost Human
And there I was, a woman who yearned so hard for the sky there had to be stars in my blood, yet I was stuck in Heliodor City, missing it all.
— Jacqueline Koyanagi, Ascension
Thus and thus is the world. Seeing the depth, we shall see also the height, and praise both.
— Olaf Stapledon
In a flurry of sharp brocade coattails and gossamer gowns cut in the Neo-Baroque fashion, the crowd turns back to their conversations, the perfect epitome of what all Aristocrats are like—bored and quickly dissatisfied with the latest trends.
— A.L. Davroe, Nexis
Most people live out ordinary lives by denying death. Others live more completely because they’re aware of it. I choose the second group.
— Alan Joshua, The SHIVA Syndrome
Shitting fucking bastard! Fuck off you massive cockwank!’ - Misty Meanor, during a particularly stressful encounter.
— Matthew Sylvester, Bitter Defeat
Myths grew from the ancient tradition of passing on knowledge orally, the only means of doing so before writing.They’re narratives of human existence. They helped our ancestors interpret reality, solve problems, and guided social behavior. They structured natural and social information into patterns using symbols, and embedded fact into story form. This increased their impact, making information meaningful and personally involving—not just cold, detached facts.
— Alan Joshua, The SHIVA Syndrome
Art imitates life, but science fiction informs us about what form it will take.
— Alan Joshua, The SHIVA Syndrome
You can not go on forever stealing what you need without regard to those who come after.
— Frank Herbert
But what's in a name? We have named all of the stars and all the planets, even though they might already have names of their own. What a nerve!
— Stanislaw Law
Am I less of a person because I weigh more?
— Carol  Riggs, The Body Institute
The health of an enlightened and progressive society is measured by how vibrant is its science fiction, since that is where true self-critique and appraisal and hope lie.
— David Brin