Miscellaneous quotes

The following are just various quotes from books that aren't getting a full review page.

Quotes

I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day. Life, the Universe, and Everything: An Interview with Douglas Adams

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. A Scandal in Bohemia, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A recipe is just a story with a good meal at the end of it The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life, by Pat Conroy

"Whenever we encounter something we can't explain, that's when science advances!" "...screaming I'd imagine." "Well, yes, but with excitement!" Gilgamesh, in Girl Genius, 2014-05-21, by Phil & Kaja Foglio

...the knowledge is there, developed by sentient entities. Why shouldn't we have access to that? Because it's a shortcut? Because we don't have to spend centuries of time developing it for ourselves? In what way will using ideas other than our own demean and diminish us? All knowledge should be cherished, not denied. Lawrence, in Fallen Dragon, Pg. 781, by Peter F. Hamilton

The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves. Athene, in The Neutronium Alchemist: Part 2: Conflict, Pg. 164, by Peter F. Hamilton

I think that you are immune to the temptations of religion. If you are not, I cannot help you, any more than I could keep you from acquiring a drug habit. A religion is sometimes a source of happiness and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong—and you are strong. The great trouble with religion—any religion—is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason—but one cannot have both. Hartley M. Baldwin, in Friday, p. 253, by Robert A. Heinlein

Don't do what you can't undo, until you've considered what you can't do once you've done it. Shrewd, in Assassin's Apprentice, Pg. 16, by Robin Hobb

That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention. Chade, in Assassin's Apprentice, Pg. 140, by Robin Hobb

Refuse the anxiety. When you borrow trouble against what might be, you neglect the moment you have now to enjoy. The man who worries about what will next be happening to him loses this moment in dread of the next, and poisons the next with pre-judgement. Berandol, in Ship of Magic, Pg. 13, by Robin Hobb

If you can believe that another human can be your posession, it is but a step to saying your wife and daughter are also posessions, and relegate them to lives convenient to one's own. Wintrow, in Ship of Magic, Pg. 286, by Robin Hobb

Guilt washed over him. He forced it aside; a true priest of Sa had little use for guilt. It but obscured; if something made a man feel bad then he must determine what about it troubled him, and eliminate that. Simply to suffer the discomforts of guilt did not indicate a man had improved himself, only that he suspected he harbored a fault. (Wintrow), in Ship of Magic, Pg. 374, by Robin Hobb

Family love, the love of her marriage, even her daughter's love for her. All based on things and the power to control the things. If you gave up power to people, then they loved you. Funny. Since she discovered that, she little cared if anyone loved her or not anymore. (Keffria), in Ship of Magic, Pg. 707, by Robin Hobb

I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse & misrepresentation which unless I greatly mistake is in store for you. . . And as to the curs which will bark and yelp -- you must recollect that some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead -- I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness Letter regarding Origin of Species to Darwin, 1859 Nov 23, by T. H. Huxley

"There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is." "It's a lot more complicated than that--" "No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts." "Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--" "But they starts with thinking about people as things..." Granny Weatherwax, in Carpe Jugulum, p. 278, by Terry Pratchett

Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on. Susan, in Hogfather, p. 24, by Terry Pratchett

Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time. Ridcully, in Hogfather, p. 172, by Terry Pratchett

MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF. DEATH, in Hogfather, p. 326, by Terry Pratchett

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They're not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET— Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME . . . SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—" MY POINT EXACTLY. She tried to assemble her thoughts. THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TWO GALAXIES HAVE BEEN COLLIDING FOR A MILLION YEARS, said Death, apropos of nothing. DON'T TRY TO TELL ME THAT'S RIGHT. "Yes, but people don't think about that," said Susan "Somewhere there was a bed ..." CORRECT. STARS EXPLODE, WORLDS COLLIDE, THERE'S HARDLY ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE WITHOUT BEING FROZEN OR FRIED, AND YET YOU BELIEVE THAT A ... A BED IS A NORMAL THING. IT IS THE MOST AMAZING TALENT. "Talent?" OH, YES. A VERY SPECIAL KIND OF STUPIDITY. YOU THINK THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE YOUR HEADS. "You make us sound mad," said Susan. A nice warm bed ... NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME? said Death, helping her up onto Binky. DEATH and Susan, in Hogfather, p. 336, by Terry Pratchett

Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes. Penny Arcade, by Tycho

Turtle Quotes

Turtles always strike me as devastatingly serious. If turtles could talk, I'd believe everything they said. 'Turtleneck', by Erin O'Brien

...in books

All the thoughts of a turtle are turtle. Journal, '5/9 1854', by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks Which practically conceal its sex. I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile. 'The Turtle', by Odgen Nash

Oh, a very useful philosophical animal, your average tortoise. Outrunning metaphorical arrows, beating hares in races... very handy. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett

The rareness of meeting a Buddha is compared with the difficulty of a blind sea- turtle finding a log to float on, or a one-eyed tortoise finding a log with a spy-hole through it. Chinese proverbs, by Soothill

...in music / radio

[A good friend of mine has said] There's this feeling that people who aren't religious are kind of cold and uncreative. His point is that any five year old can make up Adam and Eve or the world on the back of a turtle, or any of the creation myths, whereas the "creativity" comes in things like black holes, which are so much harder to think up, and you can prove. Penn Radio, (Richard Dawkins interview), by Penn Jillette

Caught up in a whirlwind, can't catch my breath Knee deep in hot water, broke out in a cold sweat Can't catch a turtle in this rat race Feels like I'm losin' time at a breakneck pace Tightrope, by Stevie Ray Vaughan

...in film

Who brings a tortoise to a gunfight? Hodges, in CSI, 'Kill Me If You Can'

Gus, don't be a giant snapping turtle! We'll have a case in ... 5 minutes. Shawn, in Psych, Episode 203: 65 Million Years Off

[Bandit] I got you boxed in like a turtle's belly Sheriff Buford T. Justice, in Smokey and the Bandit II

Dance, you mud turtles. Dance! Slave driver, in The Ten Commandments (1956)

See Also

• Quotes page on tometheus.com