John C. Wright: Doing

John C. Wright is American novelist and technical writer. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
John C. Wright: 88   quotes 1   like

““What can you do?”
“I can bring you in dream to one who dreams of you.”
“Will that help me?”
“No. But you will come, because you will hope that it will.””

John C. Wright book Orphans of Chaos

Source: Orphans of Chaos (2005), Chapter 23, “Dreams and Desires” Section 1 (p. 305)

Dreams , Hope , Help

“It is amazing how well the worst ones think of themselves, and how little the best ones do.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 22, “The Bubble Bath” (p. 300)

Thinking

“Reality is complex. The most we can hope for in life is partial solutions. And even such partial solutions as that are temporary, and may require irritating compromises. That is why I defined my actions in terms of an operational process, not in terms of an end goal. There is no end. Nothing ever ends. We do what we can when we can. Factors beyond our control—” He made a gesture at the horizon and the sky, a gesture that seemed to encompass the material world, humanity, the stars, the fates, the actions and opinions of other people, all of external reality. “—factors beyond our control…we disregard.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 3, “Within Sight of the Land of Freedom” Section 1 (p. 43; ellipsis in the original)

Life , Fate , People , World

“When I was young, I thought the act of getting older meant, year by year, getting more sophisticated, more hard, cool, and unpitying. Less innocent.
Maybe that was a childish idea of what getting older was about. Maybe adults, mature adults, get more innocent with time, not less. Because the word “innocent” does not mean “naïve,” it means “not guilty.”
Children do small evils to each other, schoolyard fights and insults, not because their hearts are pure, but because their powers are small. Grownups have more power. Some of them do great evils with that power. But what about the ones who don’t? Aren’t they more innocent than children, not less?”

John C. Wright

Source: Fugitives of Chaos (2006), Chapter 12, “North by Northwest” (p. 181)

Children , Idea , Evil , Time

“I will grant you three wishes, but do not ask for immortality without asking for eternal youth.”

John C. Wright book Orphans of Chaos

Source: Orphans of Chaos (2005), Chapter 9, “Otherspace” Section 5 (p. 138)

Youth

“Whatever dwelt among the stars had nothing to do with earthly concerns. I wonder if you will understand me if I said, staring at the indifference of the cold heavens, that I never felt less religious than in that moment, but staring at their majesty, the grandeur, I never felt more. Cruel Saturn’s created world was worthy of awe.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 7, “Works and Days” Section 5 (p. 93)

World , Star , Understanding , Indifference

“I have an ongoing operational preference, rather than an end goal. I was raised in a prison, as a war hostage. War is illogical, wasteful. Wars become less frequent the more incentives rational beings have to cooperate rather than to compete. A free and peaceful commonwealth embracing all rational entities of this and every other universe, Cosmic and Chaotic, mortal and immortal, will deter wars.
The primary requirement, however, is freedom: universal freedom. If there are other people out there, raised in imprisonment as I was, I have a duty to liberate them, for the same reason why I would have welcomed any outside liberator who would have attempted to free me. We were in the most pleasant prison imaginable. It was still unacceptable. The present condition of the universe is unacceptable. Anything I can do, large or small, along these lines, I will do. Other problems are secondary, and may resolve themselves once this primary problem is solved.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 3, “Within Sight of the Land of Freedom” Section 1 (pp. 42-43)

War , People , Peace , Imagination

“There is a war, you know, between Cosmos and Chaos, between order and entropy, between reason and unreason. This forms the fundamental basis of existence; I do not see how any victory or lasting peace is possible. The most one can hope for is temporary compromises, temporary armistice. You are not the first victim of this terrible conflict.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 22, “The Bubble Bath” (p. 306)

War , Peace , Hope , Victory

“Think, Amelia, think. You read all those books. What would Odysseus do? Dress up like a beggar, and then shoot everyone. No help there. What would Achilles do? Go sulk in his tent. Nope. Aeneas? Sacrifice a cow or something. Boy, these old heroes are really not useful as role models. Who were my other heroes? Margaret Thatcher? Attack Argentina. No time to go wobbly.”

John C. Wright

Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 10, “Love’s Proper Hue” Section 7 (p. 157)

Books , Boy , Thinking , Time

“Come on, Amelia. We are not really British. We do not have to look down our noses at honest labor.”

John C. Wright

Source: Fugitives of Chaos (2006), Chapter 18, “Festive Days on the Slopes of Vesuvius” (p. 285)