John Barnes quotes

Almost every culture in the Thousand Cultures had some wisdom literature, and much of it was the same between any two cultures. . . . Cultures tend to be alike in much of what they think are the basic virtues, but one of the ones they are most alike in, though it rarely appears in their book of wisdom, is: Distrust strangers, fear foreigners, dread novelty. (John Barnes)
One of the stranger beliefs in science fiction is a passionate belief in Beautiful Writing--lots and lots of extraspecial exciting words thrown no hurled no CASCADED upon the reader in a shimmering shower of precious verbal gleaming gleanings and a singing pillar of righteous fiery syntactic spinach. The only thing that was good in that sentence was the spinach, and the hell with it. View quote
John Barnes
And just like this, all of a sudden, your people and mine will begin to talk?" "It only looks sudden from some places. Running off a cliff is sudden if you don't know it's there, even if you have been running toward it for days." "That's not a reassuring metaphor." "It isn't meant to be. View quote
John Barnes
In discussing the existence, or not, of the soul: "I am Caledon. Quite a few of my fellow Caledons still believe there is some essence to a human being, something that makes a person unique." "And you don't." "I don't. I see that people who believe in anything beyond plain physical reality are mainly engaged in making themselves or others miserable." View quote
John Barnes
It's a good idea for diplomats to keep their word in small matters. It makes the later complete betrayals more of a surprise. View quote
John Barnes
Experimentally she thinks about dumping toxic waste in pristine wilderness and killing the last great apes on earth with a club. She still finds both those thoughts disgusting. This is a relief; it seems to her that she's just selfish, not evil. She was always taught they're the same thing. She hopes she remembers, when she gets out of all this, that they're not. View quote
John Barnes
The beautiful earth is being crapped up by an excess of people-lovely as individuals, towns, and cultures, but hideous in such profusion. View quote
John Barnes
He wonders if there is some requirement that you have to be an idiot to be a politician. View quote
John Barnes
Are you up to faking being sincere underneath faking being fake? View quote
John Barnes
If you want to learn a culture, you have to learn how to like what it likes, rather than go looking for something that you like. View quote
John Barnes
Yeats fussed about things falling apart and the center not being able to hold. What really happened was that the center ceased to exist altogether. (John Barnes)
It's a game against the clock, but what isn't? View quote
John Barnes
Once you understand what money can do it gets harder to live without it. View quote
John Barnes
[Regarding politicians]... like any group of people selected for ambition and nothing else, they turn out to be a pretty bad lot. Like mandarins in China, colonial administrators in the British Empire, lawyers in old North America, or the reconstruction agencies after the Slaughter -- individually there are decent people who do some good, but as a class they're amoral, vicious leeches with a good cover story. View quote
John Barnes
Finally she resorts to the oldest tactic of all, telling the truth. View quote
John Barnes
The drive to see what's over the next hill is in part the fear that one may never know, that if one doesn't go over the hill today, one may never get farther than the village graveyard. View quote
John Barnes
Justice has a way of not arriving where and when you wish it. View quote
John Barnes
The way you can tell there's democracy going on is that nothing gets done. View quote
John Barnes
When all else fails, admit you're an idiot. View quote
John Barnes
The more rules you impose on a creative intelligence, of course, the fewer problems it can solve. View quote
John Barnes
Most people think the world is out to get them, because they have all the evidence they need-they don't get enough of what they want. But that doesn't make it so. (John Barnes)
It's a long step down the road to paranoia, but it's been a proverb for a hundred years that being paranoid does not mean that they aren't out to get you. View quote
John Barnes
People who put principles before people are people who hate people. They don't much care about how well it works, just about how right it is... they may even like it better if it inflicts enough pain. View quote
John Barnes
There is a saying among those of us who have careers with the Council of Humanity that skiers, cooks, painters, and diplomats must work with what is in front of them. View quote
John Barnes
He's always known the real way to money is not through production but through control; "The hotel owner gets rich owning the keys, the maids stay poor keeping the toilets clean,” as one of his biz profs back at Madison used to say. View quote
John Barnes