Greg Bear Quotes (38 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous Greg Bear Quotes

“We are born in ignorance, we die in ignorance, but maybe sometimes we learn something important and pass it along to others before we die. Or we write it down in a little book.”

Greg Bear book Hull Zero Three

Hull Zero Three (2010)

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.”

Greg Bear

“Conservatism is not about tradition and morality, hasn't been for many decades… It is about the putative biological and spiritual superiority of the wealthy.”

Greg Bear

“Welcome to the truth of our world-a massive seed shot out to the stars, filled with deadly children. A seed designed to slay everything it touches.”

Greg Bear book Hull Zero Three

Source: Hull Zero Three

““We must know our enemy, at least a little.”
“That’s dangerous,” Prufrax said, almost instinctively.
“Yes, it is. What you know, you cannot hate.””

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 63

“Grief is not productive. It simply represents an inefficiency in accepting change of status.”

Greg Bear book Eon

Source: Eon (1985), p. 263

Greg Bear Quotes about the world

“There is nothing finer in the world than the telling of tales. Split atoms if you wish, but splitting an infinitive—and getting away with it—is far nobler. Lance boils if you wish, but pricking pretensions is often cleaner and always more fun.”

Greg Bear

Short fiction, The White Horse Child (1979)

““You’re a romantic, aren’t you?” she said.
“I suppose I am.”
“I am too. The silliest people in the world are romantics.””

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 39 (p. 210)

“We're not prophets. We're not here to inform the rich people of the world on how to make more money, or to inform governments on how to direct themselves. We are here to allow you to dream your dreams and make them happen, and have your nightmares a little in advance so you can prevent them from happening.”

Greg Bear

On science fiction writers, Guest of Honor speech at the Millennium Philcon 59th World Science Fiction Convention (2001), from Women in Deep Time (2002), ed. ibooks

Greg Bear Quotes about understanding

“The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound—that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self. We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?”

Greg Bear

"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

“Sometimes I feel like a beetle crawling through a fusion power plant. I can feel a certain amount, see a certain amount, but I sure as hell don’t understand everything.”

Greg Bear book Eon

Source: Eon (1985), p. 73

“When evenly matched, you cannot win against your enemy unless you understand them. And if you truly understand, why are you fighting and not talking?”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 69

Greg Bear

We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

Greg Bear Quotes

“Nothing is lost. Nothing is forgotten.
It was in the blood, the flesh,
And now it is forever.”

Greg Bear

Interphase: Thought Universe (p. 247; closing lines)
Blood Music (1985)

“The price of freedom—of individuality—is attention to politics, careful planning, careful organization; philosophy is no more a barrier against political disaster than it is against plague.”

Greg Bear

Short fiction, Heads (1990)

“There is no war so important that to win it, we must destroy our minds.”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 76

““We’d like to agree with you.” He glanced at Arthur.
“We can’t, however,” Arthur said.
“For the moment, then, amicable disagreement and open minds.””

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 24 (p. 159)

“I sometimes think we deserve to die, we’re all so goddamned stupid.”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 50 (p. 342)

“To fight an enemy properly, you have to know what they are. Ignorance is defeat.”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 54

“You deserve whoever governs you … Everyone is responsible for the actions of their leaders.”

Greg Bear

Cf. Joseph de Maistre: "Every nation gets the government it deserves." (1811)
Short fiction, The Wind from a Burning Woman (1978)

“Apocalypse could not be repealed by the democratic process.”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 34 (p. 250)

“Nothing will ever be the same again.
Good! Wonderful! Wasn’t it all badly flawed anyway?
No, perhaps not. Not until now.”

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 219)

“He may not have had time, but even allowing him the time, Vergil simply did not think such things through. Brilliant in the creation, slovenly in the consideration of consequences.
But wasn’t that true of every creator?
Didn’t anyone who changed things ultimately lead some people—perhaps many people—to death, grief, torment?”

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 219)

“It’s not impossible,” Minelli said.
“No,” Edward admitted, “but it’s paranoid as hell, and that’s the last thing we need, more fear.”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 37 (p. 264)

“The battle was over. There were no victors.”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 39

“We’ve been fighting for so long, we’ve begun to lose ourselves. And it’s getting worse.”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 76

“Altruism is masked self-interest. Aggressive self-interest is a masked urge to self-destruction.”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 52 (p. 352)

“Can’t own a woman, Mike. Wonderful companions, can’t own them.”

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 39 (p. 207)

“She saw that in all wars, the first stage was to dehumanize the enemy, reduce the enemy to a lower level so that he might be killed without compunction. When the enemy was not human to begin with, the task was easier.”

Greg Bear

Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 76

“Having one’s eyes opened doesn’t make one grateful.”

Greg Bear book Eon

Source: Eon (1985), p. 291

“That’s insane,” Lanier said.
“Not very. It’s politics.”

Greg Bear book Eon

Source: Eon (1985), p. 153

“A Stellar’s jay hopped along behind him, watching closely for dropped crumbs. “It’s dark,” he told the bird. “Go to sleep. I've eaten already. Where were you? No food now.” The bird persisted, however; it knew humans were liars.”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 54 (p. 362)

“Around her gulps of water, she repeated her prayer, until the monotony and futility silenced her.”

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 20 (pp. 116-117)

“I’m going to take you out tonight,” he said. “Another Heisenberg dinner.”
“What’s that?”
“Uncertainty,” Edward said crisply. “We know where we are going, but not what we are going to eat. Or vice versa.”
“Sounds wonderful. Which car?”
“The Quantum, of course.”
“Oh, Lord. We just had the speedometer fixed.”
“And the steering went out?”

Greg Bear

“Shh! It’s still working. We’re cheating.”
Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 10 (p. 65)

““Very evocative. He seems to be confirming what I said last year—that the universe really has no underpinnings, that when a good hypothesis comes along, one that explains the prior events, the underpinnings shape themselves to accommodate and a powerful theory is born.”
“Then there is no ultimate reality?”
“Apparently not. Bad hypotheses, those that don’t fit what happen on our level, are rejected by the universe. Good ones, powerful ones, are incorporated.””

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 45 (p. 239)

“Information can be stored even more compactly than in molecular memory. It can be stored in the structure of space-time. What is matter, after all, but a standing-wave of information in the vacuum?”

Greg Bear

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 45 (p. 237)

“Life on earth is hard. Competition for the necessities of life is fierce. How ridiculous to believe that the law of harsh survival would not be true elsewhere, or that it would be negated by the progress of technology in an advanced civilization…”

Greg Bear book The Forge of God

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 52 (p. 352)

“We must know our enemy, at least a little.”

Greg Bear book Hardfought

“That’s dangerous,” Prufrax said, almost instinctively.
“Yes, it is. What you know, you cannot hate.”
Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 63

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