John Scalzi Quotes

Empires of conquest don’t last, Administrator Perry. They hollow out from within, from the greed of rulers and the endless appetite for war.

Obviously, the Rraey have some way to predict, with a high degree of accuracy, where our ships are going to skip. How do they do that?"
"I don't think you're supposed to be able to," I said.
"That's exactly right. But they do anyway. So, quite obviously, our model of how skipping works is wrong. Theory gets thrown out the window when observation proves it isn't so. The question now is what is really going on.

I was pretty certain my dad was not up to no good, running for senator notwithstanding.

Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think - and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking - that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It's the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER."

“You and I don’t actually need to be here for this,” I said to the goat. The goat didn’t respond, but I could tell she agreed with me.

Look," I said. "Something that needs your attention. Over there. Away from here.

“I don’t know,” Davidson said. “Maybe it’s not about politics. Maybe these guys are just assholes.”
“Seems the simplest explanation,” I said.

I had never seen so many old people in one place at one time. Neither had Harry. “It’s like Wednesday morning at the world’s biggest Denny’s,” he said.

You don’t win by getting through all your life not having done anything.

“Do you believe that?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter whether I believe it or not,” Redhouse said.

That’s physicists for you. Not exactly brimming over with poetry.

I’m not sure I like their plan for converting us to their religion, seeing as it involves dying and all.

In this universe, experience counts.

Teenagers can be idiotic and stupid, but teenagers also model their behavior from the signals they get from adults.

I have no idea what that means, Nick," Paulson said. "Talk normal human to me.