Daniel Abraham quotes - page 4

Humanity was so flawed. Not just her, but everyone. Half the population was below average intelligence. Half below average dedication. Average adherence to duty. The cruel law of statistics. It was astounding that as a race they'd managed as much as they had. (Daniel Abraham)
Things changed, and they didn't change back. But sometimes they got better. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Sometimes when we make these distinctions, we're really creating them more than describing anything that's already there. View quote
Daniel Abraham
He wasn't a man who reined in his curiosity well. View quote
Daniel Abraham
It's good being young,” he said, "but some people wear it better than others. View quote
Daniel Abraham
There was no amount of double-checking that would ever prove that nothing had been missed. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Amazing how much we've managed to do, considering how we're doing it all with jumped-up social primates and evolutionary behaviors from the Pleistocene. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Thing is, we're humans. We're tribal. More settled things are, the bigger your tribe is. All the people in your gang, or all the people in your country. All the ones on your planet. Then the churn comes, and the tribe gets small again. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Thing about civilization, it's what keeps people civil. You get rid of one, you can't count on the other. View quote
Daniel Abraham
That sounds like post hoc realpolitik rationalizing bullshit. View quote
Daniel Abraham
History's made of surprises that seem obvious in retrospect. (Daniel Abraham)
The aliens that sent the protomolecule hadn't needed to destroy humanity. They'd given humans the opportunity to destroy themselves, and as a species, they'd leaped on it. View quote
Daniel Abraham
You think we're going to die?” "Yup.” "Of this? View quote
Daniel Abraham
In order to be heard by the oppressing class, one must speak as a member of it. Not only the language, but the diction. The accusation of tyranny, however well-founded in fact, is dismissed unless it is delivered in the manner that power recognizes as powerful. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Realizing you've got shit on your fingers is the first step toward washing your hands. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Secrecy is the potting soil in which all this conspiracy shit grows. Trust me. The roaches don't like it when you start shining a light on them. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Like the roaches and the rats, ants had learned to live with their human neighbors without much trouble. When the concrete of human cities spread across the globe and half the animals on Earth were on endangered lists, no one had worried about the ants. They were doing fine, thanks, and spilled fast food was just as plentiful and delicious as dead forest animals had once been. Adapt or die. View quote
Daniel Abraham
We're still humans after all. Some percentage of us are always going to be assholes. View quote
Daniel Abraham
She felt like her soul was a handful of dice that were still rolling, and what came up would decide the shape that the rest of her life took. View quote
Daniel Abraham
She wanted to care, but she didn't. She didn't have time. View quote
Daniel Abraham
She knew intellectually that he was beautiful, the way the iridescent wings of a carrion fly would be. (Daniel Abraham)
The only right you have with anyone in life is the right to walk away. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Alex's experience of real family-of blood relations-was more like having a lot of people who had all wound up on the same mailing list without knowing quite why they signed up for it. View quote
Daniel Abraham
You can tell you've found a really interesting question when nobody wants you to answer it. View quote
Daniel Abraham
Computers, it seemed, could be programmed to do almost anything but sense when someone was up to no good. View quote
Daniel Abraham