George Alec Effinger: Trending quotes

“I believe that it is possible to overlegislate ourselves into a highly restrictive form of government.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 11 (p. 174).

“Turmoil and revolution in their best guises serve to tear down ancient and meaningless customs, in favor of practical social reform.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: What Entropy Means to Me (1972), Chapter 10 “The Final Struggle” (p. 160).

Tear

“Any thought which is printed, either here or in the paper, without subsequent attack is generally believed to be true. This is not so much a logical condition as it is a fault of human nature. A longstanding or constant idea is often equated with a true one.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: What Entropy Means to Me (1972), Chapter 9 “A Moral Dilemma” (p. 140).

Idea , Nature

““Useful! You want to talk about useful? Have you ever read anything about politics? Economics? You know what keeps a culture alive?”
“Yes,” said Ernest sullenly, while M. Gargotier cleaned up the mess. “People not bothering other people.””

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 8 (p. 135).

People , Reading

“Was that what he wanted, what the grand scheme of Utopia 3 was designed for? It was a lot like death, only more tedious.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Death in Florence (1978), Chapter 2 “A New Mann” (p. 99).

Death

“Proper knowledge defeats the shouting minions of emotion.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: What Entropy Means to Me (1972), Chapter 10 “The Final Struggle” (p. 160).

Knowledge

“People who live their lives by proverbs waste their time doing lots of stupid things. “Getting even is the best revenge” is my motto.”

George Alec Effinger book A Fire in the Sun

Source: A Fire in the Sun (1989), Chapter 20 (p. 282).

People , Stupidity , Revenge , Time

“I liked being the screwer rather than the screwee.”

George Alec Effinger book A Fire in the Sun

Source: A Fire in the Sun (1989), Chapter 20 (p. 280).

“We tread on unsure ground, theologically. The doctrines are still in the malleable state; what eventually evolves from them will owe its existence not to pre-eminent merit, but to the shrewdness of the compromises made by the factions.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: What Entropy Means to Me (1972), Chapter 5 “In the Hall of the Mountain Thing” (p. 80).

“The night is this city’s single resource. Well, that and disease.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 14 (p. 217).

Disease , Night

“The network was running a pre-recorded tape of a morning quiz show. The contestants looked vapid, the announcer cheerfully bored, the questions pointless, and the prizes undesirable.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 14 (p. 211).

Question

“The party had demanded this; Weintraub was to be a scapegoat, the local conspirator in the Reichstag tragedy. “I suppose I can’t doubt them,” he thought, as his heart pounded, as his mouth grew dry, as he felt his head become airy and his thoughts giddy. “After all, the Party has the broadest perspective. I don’t have any real sense of this worldwide operation. It’s all for the greater good, I guess. They know what they’re doing.””

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 13 (p. 208).

Sense , Heart

“You underestimate the ability of people to act like idiots.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 8 (p. 128).

People

“Perhaps he could organize everyone. He could stand up on something and shout slogans until he had attracted enough attention. Then he could begin some rambling speech, hoping that the people around him would be so desperate for leadership they wouldn’t notice the absurdity of what he said.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 8 (p. 124).

People , Hope

““What do you know about the activities of the brain and the nervous system?”
I laughed. “About as much as any hustler from the Budayeen who can barely read and write his name. I know that the brain is in the head, I’ve heard that it’s a bad idea to let some thug spill it on the sidewalk. Beyond that, I don’t know much.” I did, truthfully, know some more, but I always hold something in reserve. It’s a good policy to be a little quicker, a little stronger, and a little smarter than everybody thinks you are.”

George Alec Effinger book When Gravity Fails

Source: When Gravity Fails (1986), Chapter 12 (p. 160).

Idea , Thinking , Reading

““She cost you more”
“I know,” said the trick. “How much?”
“You tell me,” she said, thinking he might be a cop setting her up. That kind of thing still happened whenever the religious authorities ran out of infidels to persecute.”

George Alec Effinger book When Gravity Fails

Source: When Gravity Fails (1986), Chapter 2 (p. 17).

Thinking

“Sometimes the only vitamins I get are in the lime slices in my gimlets.”

George Alec Effinger book When Gravity Fails

Source: When Gravity Fails (1986), Chapter 3 (p. 27).

“In many ways, Islam is a beautiful and elegant faith; but it is the nature of religions to put a higher premium on your proper attention to ritual than on your convenience.”

George Alec Effinger book When Gravity Fails

Source: When Gravity Fails (1986), Chapter 7 (p. 89).

Faith , Religion , Beauty , Way

“The male sexual drive is supposed to fall off during moments of stress,” he thought. “It is comforting sometimes to know that I must be abnormal. Especially in a situation like this. Perpetual lust has got to be good for the human race.”

George Alec Effinger

Source: Relatives (1973)., Chapter 8 (p. 126).

“The information I got from one person often contradicted the version I heard from another, so I’d long ago gotten into the habit of trying to hear as many different stories as I could and averaging them all out. The truth was in there somewhere, I knew it; the problem was coaxing it into the open.”

George Alec Effinger book When Gravity Fails

Source: When Gravity Fails (1986), Chapter 7 (p. 90).

Truth , Problem , Personality