“Being on time is a filthy habit practised only by roosters and retirees.”
Catherynne M. Valente, Radiance
“They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is it use it.”
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
“Madness was the inability to recognize and deal with reality. Madness could not control, could not be so clever, so powerful, as to design and execute a plan of this scope.”
Rosemary Kirstein, The Outskirter’s Secret
“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do”
Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
“Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.”
Dee Hock
“‘Myself, I do not see what is so wonderful about authority at all,’ Temeraire said”
Naomi Novik, In His Majesty’s Service: Three Novels of Temeraire
"‘Never, ever pass up a nap-and-nosh when it comes to you, Mister Boy,’ the skadgebat announced with authority. ‘The absolute right of every creature to afternoon snacks’—he thrust his paw into the air and raised his voice like an old-fashioned politician, trilling his r’s and biting off his t’s with clean snaps—‘whatsoever those snacks may consist of, transcends life, death, business hours, and moral law! It shall not be infringed!’”
Catherynne M. Valente, Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Wood
“Nothing is ever staying the same. We take for granted that, from a distance, we can remain ignorant about the pain and suffering experienced by others as the universe grinds at the thin membranes encasing them.”
Sameem Siddiqui, Timed Obsolescence
“This song is Copyrighted in the U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a darn. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”
Woody Guthrie
“That which is large enough for the rich to covet… is large enough for the poor to defend.”
G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill
"To oppose something is to maintain it.
They say here ‘all roads lead to Mishnory.’ To be sure, if you turn your back on Mishnory and walk away from it, you are still on the Mishnory road. To oppose vulgarity is inevitably to be vulgar. You must go somewhere else; you must have another goal; then you walk a different road.
…
To be an atheist is to maintain God. His existence or his nonexistence, it amounts to much the same, on the plane of proof.
…
To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness."
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
“People needed more than personal connections to feel part of the group. ‘[They] needed huge monumental art to create commitment and remind people constantly of their collective identity,’”
Annalee Newitz, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
“Any assumption that we’re going to end up like now, but moreso, is so insufficiently weird it’s the only thing you can be sure won’t happen in the future.”
Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
“Responsibility ain’t no valuable thing to have, necessarily”
Larry McMurtry, Leaving Cheyenne
“When science has sent forth her fiat - it is only to hear and obey!”
Jules Verne, A Journey to the Center of the Earth
“Raiding is fair; if you can’t defend your goods, you don’t deserve them. But if you only live by preying on the weak, then you’re weaker than your prey.”
Rosemary Kirstein, The Outskirter’s Secret
“Life as an ethereal glamtrash satyr had never been simple. It hadn’t been restful. It hadn’t been recommended as part of a healthy and complete breakfast.”
Catherynne M. Valente, Space Opera
“Oh well, Happy New Year’s baby
We could probably fix it if we clean it up all day
Or we could simply pack our bags
And catch a plane to Barcelona 'cause this city’s a drag”
Counting Crows, Holiday in Spain
“After all, there’s no virtue in software freedom. The only thing worth caring about is human freedom. The only reason to value software freedom is if it sets humans free.”
Cory Doctorow