Daniel Abraham: Quotes about people

“Governments exist on confidence. Not on liberty. Not on righteousness. Not on force. They exist because people believe that they do. Because they don’t ask questions.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 34 (p. 357)

Self-confidence , Confidence , People , Question

“If things got out of hand, it would mean six or seven million dead people and the end of everything Miller had ever known.
Odd that it should feel almost like relief.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Leviathan Wakes (2011), Chapter 16 (p. 164)

People , Feeling , Dead

“I hate that it breaks down that way. Your side and mine. One of my teachers back in school always used to say that contagion was the one absolute proof of community. People could pretend there weren’t drug users and prostitutes and unvaccinated children all they wanted, but when the plague came through, all that mattered was who was actually breathing your air.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Cibola Burn (2014), Chapter 27 (p. 277)

School , Hate , Children , People

“Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It’s attractive because it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s almost always available as an option. When you can’t think of a good rebuttal for your opponent’s argument, you can always punch them in the face.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 44 (p. 444)

Idea , Thinking , People

“I’m getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, sacrificing an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised part of the ship. I was unconscious at the time, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 32 (p. 338)

Time , People , Thinking , Relation ships

“History is made up of people recovering from the last disaster.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 32 (p. 335)

People , History

“That kind of attention changes people, and it don’t make them better.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 11 (p. 122)

Making love , People , Change

“There are no souls, Melba thought with a touch of pity. We are bags of meat with a little electricity running through them. No ghosts, no spirits, no souls. The only thing that survives is the story people tell about you. The only thing that matters is your name.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Abaddon's Gate (2013), Chapter 11 (p. 121)

Soul , People

“Desperate psychotic people do desperate psychotic things when they’re exposed. I refuse to grant them immunity from exposure out of fear of their reaction. When you do, the desperate psychos wind up in charge.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Caliban's War (2012), Chapter 42 (p. 463)

Fear , People

“It’s good being young,” he said, “but some people wear it better than others.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 42 (p. 432)

People

“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.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 30 (p. 317)

People , Country

“Thing about civilization, it’s what keeps people civil. You get rid of one, you can’t count on the other.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 30 (p. 316)

People

“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.”

Daniel Abraham

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 15 (p. 163)

Family , People , Relation ships

“The people who have power over you are weak too. They shit and bleed and worry that their children don’t love them anymore. They’re embarrassed by the stupid things they did when they were young that everyone else has forgotten. And so they’re vulnerable. We all define ourselves by the people around us, because that’s the kind of monkey we are. We can’t transcend it. So when they watch you, they hand you the power to change what they are too.”

Daniel Abraham

The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Prologue (p. 5)

Children , People , Stupidity , Love