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Philip K. Dick Quotes
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Philip Kindred Dick was an American science fiction writer. Dick explored philosophical, social, and political themes in his novels with plots dominated by monopolistic corporations, alternative universes, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. His work reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology, and often drew upon his life experiences in addressing the nature of reality, identity, drug abuse, schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences.

Born in Illinois before moving to California, Dick began publishing science fiction stories in the 1950s, initially finding little commercial success. His 1962 alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle earned Dick early acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel. He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik . His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel. Following a series of religious experiences in February–March 1974, Dick's work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, philosophy, and the nature of reality, as in such novels as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS . A collection of his non-fiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick . He died in 1982 of a stroke, aged 53.

In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. A variety of popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner , Total Recall , Minority Report , A Scanner Darkly , and The Adjustment Bureau . In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.

✵ 16. December 1928 – 2. March 1982
Philip K. Dick photo
Philip K. Dick: 278   quotes 5   likes

Philip K. Dick Quotes

“I, for one, bet on science as helping us. I have yet to see how it fundamentally endangers us, even with the H-bomb lurking about. Science has given us more lives than it has taken; we must remember that.”

Philip K. Dick

"Self Portrait" (1968), reprinted in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995), ed. Lawrence Sutin

Science , Help

“In all possible universes, Monday was the same.”

Philip K. Dick book Eye in the Sky

Source: Eye in the Sky (1957), Chapter 9 (p. 119)

Universe

“There’s a law,” Chuck said, “which I call Rittersdorf’s Third Law of Diminished Returns, which states that proportional to how long you hold a job you imagine that it has progressively less and less importance in the scheme of things.”

Philip K. Dick book Clans of the Alphane Moon

Source: Clans of the Alphane Moon (1964), Chapter 4 (p. 47)

Law , Imagination

“The church of my choice is the free, open world.”

Philip K. Dick book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Source: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1974), Chapter 13 (p. 124)

World

“No one today remembered why the war had come about or who, if anyone, had won. The dust which had contaminated most of the planet’s surface had originated in no country, and no one, even the wartime enemy, had planned on it.”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Chapter 2 (p. 15)

War , Country

“That’s the trouble with living in a police state, he said to himself; you think—you imagine—the police are behind everything. You get paranoid and think they’re beaming information to you in your sleep, to subliminally control you. Actually the police wouldn’t do that. The police are our friends.
Or was that idea beamed to me subliminally? he wondered suddenly. “The police are our friends.””

Philip K. Dick

The hell they are!
Source: Lies, Inc. (1984), Chapter 1 (p. 6)

Imagination , Idea , Hell , Thinking

“It sounds like they’re saying passive life is good, he thought. But there is no such thing as passive life. That’s a contradiction.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly (1977), Chapter 14 (p. 245)

Life

“Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups…So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

Philip K. Dick

"How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)

People , Motivation , Reality , Universe

“You of all people," the void communicated. "Out of everyone, it is you I love the most.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

VALIS (1981)

Love , People , Communication

“Odd that the brain could function on its own, without acquainting him with its purposes, its reasons. But the brain was an organ, like the spleen, heart, kidneys. And they went about their private activities. So why not the brain?”

Philip K. Dick book The Man Who Japed

The Man Who Japed (1956)

Heart

“This is an artifact and that was a relic. This is alive in the now, whereas that merely remained.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

“Crazy people do not apply the principle of scientific parsimony… they shoot for the baroque.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

VALIS (1981)

People

“But what are you supposed to do in a society that’s corrupt? Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws? Is it a crime to break a law that’s a rotten law, or an oath that’s rotten?
“It’s a crime,” Cartwright admitted slowly. “But it may be the right thing to do.”
“In a society of criminals,” Shaeffer offered, “the innocent man goes to jail.”
“Who decides when the society is made up of criminals? Benteley demanded. “How do you know when your society has gone wrong? How do you know when it’s right to stop obeying the laws?”

Philip K. Dick book Solar Lottery

“You just know,” Rita O’Neill said fiercely.
Source: Solar Lottery (1955), Chapter 14 (pp. 156-157)

Law

““Hasn’t all this taught you anything?” Annette asked Gabriel Baines as they waited for the simulacrum’s return and report.
“Like what?”
“That there is no perfect defense. There is no protection. Being alive means being exposed; it’s the nature of life to be hazardous—it’s the stuff of living.”

Philip K. Dick book Clans of the Alphane Moon

Source: Clans of the Alphane Moon (1964), Chapter 13 (p. 226)

Life , Nature , Waiting , Perfection

“Probably she should not have gotten away with it for as long as she had…but sometime, he had often thought, the retribution will come: reality denied comes back to haunt.”

Philip K. Dick book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Source: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1974), Chapter 15 (p. 129)

Reality

“Fully absorbed in the peculiar text he had become totally oblivious to the noises and movements around him; all that existed for him now was the printed page held motionless before his intense scrutiny.”

Philip K. Dick

Source: Lies, Inc. (1984), Chapter 14 (p. 163)

“Mercer,” Rick said.
“I am your friend,” the old man said. “But you must go on as if I did not exist. Can you understand that?” He spread empty hands.
“No,” Rick said. “I can’t understand that. I need help.”
“How can I save you,” the old man said, “if I can’t save myself?” He smiled. “Don’t you see? There is no salvation.”
“Then what’s this for?” Rick demanded. “What are you for?”
“To show you,” Wilbur Mercer said, “that you aren’t alone. I am here with you and always will be. Go and do your task, even though you know it’s wrong.”
“Why?” Rick said. “Why should I do it? I’ll quit my job and emigrate.”
The old man said, “You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

“That’s all you can tell me?” Rick said.
Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Chapter 15 (pp. 178-179)

Life , Smile , Understanding , Universe

“Spinoza saw… that if a falling stone could reason, it would think, "I want to fall at the rate of thirty-two feet per second."”

Philip K. Dick

"The Android and the Human" (1972), reprinted in The Dark-Haired Girl (1988) and in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995), ed. Lawrence Sutin

Thinking

“Each of us assumes everyone else knows what HE is doing. They all assume we know what WE are doing. We don't … Nothing is going on and nobody knows what it is. Nobody is concealing anything except the fact that he does not understand anything anymore and wishes he could go home.”

Philip K. Dick

In Pursuit of Valis: Selections from the Exegesis (1991)

Home , Understanding

““Maybe I shouldn’t have told you—about it being electrical.” She put her hand out, touched his arm; she felt guilty, seeing the effect it had on him, the change.
”No,” Rick said. “I’m glad to know. Or rather—” He became silent. “I’d prefer to know.””

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Chapter 22 (p. 241)

Change

“We should celebrate,” Rita said.
“Yes. I'm where I wanted to be.” Benteley sipped the remains of his drink. “Working for the Directorate. Sworn in to the Quizmaster. That’s what I set out for, that day. It seems like a long time ago. Well, I've finally arrived.” He gazed down at his glass and was silent.
“How do you feel?”

Philip K. Dick book Solar Lottery

“Not much different.”
Source: Solar Lottery (1955), Chapter 16 (p. 176)

Feeling , Drink , Time

“The hymns were unfamiliar to him, but he quickly picked up the general beat. The hymns had a redundant simplicity; the same phrases and tones appeared and reappeared. The same monotonous ideas, repeated indefinitely. The appetite of (Tetragrammaton) was insatiable, he concluded. A childish, nebulous personality that required constant praise—and in the most obvious terms. Quick to anger, (Tetragrammaton) was equally quick to sink into euphoria, was eager and ready to lap up these blatant flatteries.
A balance. A method of lulling the Deity. But what a delicate mechanism. Danger for everyone…The easily-aroused Presence that was always nearby. Always listening.”

Philip K. Dick book Eye in the Sky

Source: Eye in the Sky (1957), Chapter 7 (pp. 97-98)

Idea , Appearance , Personality , Anger

“An EEG of a person watching TV shows that after about half an hour the brain decides that nothing is happening, and it goes into a hypnoidal twilight state, emitting alpha waves. This is because there is such little eye motion.”

Philip K. Dick

"How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)

Personality

“I will never fully understand; that is the nature of such creatures. Or is this Inner Truth now, this that is happening to me? I will wait. I will see. Which it is. Perhaps it is both.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

Truth , Understanding , Nature , Waiting

“Are we to assist it in gaining power in order to save our lives? Is that the paradox of our earthly situation?”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

“(Hawthorne Abendsen) told us about our own world. This, what's around us now. He wants us to see it for what it is. And I do, and more so each moment.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

World

“You saw something you were not supposed to see — something few elements have been aware of, let alone witnessed.”

Philip K. Dick book Adjustment Team

Adjustment Team (1954)

“I did not attend the services, because it seems to me, as Pythagoras says, the body is the tomb of the soul and that by being born a person has already begun to die.”

Philip K. Dick book Confessions of a Crap Artist

Confessions of a Crap Artist (1959)

Soul , Personality

“We have entered a Moment when we are alone. We cannot get assistance, as before. Well, Mr. Tagomi thought, perhaps that too is good. Or can be made good. One must still try to find the Way.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

Way

“It was evident to Elias Tate that this was the government. First they shake hands with you, he thought, and then they murder you.”

Philip K. Dick The Divine Invasion

The Divine Invasion (1981)

“The representative of the drayage firm failed to move me.”

Philip K. Dick

Source: Lies, Inc. (1984), Chapter 12 (p. 131)

““Time to get up,” he informed her. “Don’t you hear the Almighty bellowing in the living room?”
“What’s he saying?” Marsha murmured crossly.
“Nothing in particular. Repent or suffer eternal damnation. The usual tribal tub-thumping.””

Philip K. Dick book Eye in the Sky

Source: Eye in the Sky (1957), Chapter 8 (p. 103)

Suffering , Time

“You’re a goldmine of misinformation.”

Philip K. Dick

Source: Lies, Inc. (1984), Chapter 11 (p. 124)

“Activity does not necessarily mean life. Quasars are active. And a monk meditating is not inanimate.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly (1977), Chapter 14 (p. 244)

Life

“Well, I hate to admit it, but it is possible that there is (one) such a thing as telepathy and (two) that the CETI project's idea that we might communicate with extraterrestrial beings via telepathy is possibly a reasonable idea--if telepathy exists and if ETIs exist. Otherwise we are trying to communicate with someone who doesn't exist with a system which doesn't work.”

Philip K. Dick book The Dark Haired Girl

The Dark Haired Girl, (1989)

Hate , Communication , Idea

“A novelist carries with him constantly what most women carry in large purses: much that is useless, a few absolutely essential items, and then, for good measure, a great number of things that fall in between. But the novelist does not transport them physically because his trove of possessions is mental. Now and then he adds a new and entirely useless idea; now and then he reluctantly cleans out the trash -- the obviously worthless ideas -- and with a few sentimental tears sheds them. Once in a great while, however, he happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else. It is this final category that dignifies his existence. But such truly priceless ideas… perhaps during his entire lifetime he may, at best, acquire only a meager few. But that is enough; he has, through them, justified his existence to himself and to his God.”

Philip K. Dick

"If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (1977)

Women , God , Hope , Idea

“Cris didn't play fair. He had watched half an hour — then come out and thrown once. One perfect toss, one dead ringer.”

Philip K. Dick

The Golden Man (1954)

Perfection , Dead

“Can anyone alter fate? All of us combined…or one great figure…or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And our lives, our world, hanging on it.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

Fate , World , Chance

“Giving me a new idea is like handing a cretin a loaded gun, but I do thank you anyhow, bang, bang.”

Philip K. Dick

Letter to Patricia Warrick (17 May 1978), published in Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1977-1979 (1993)

Idea

“How can I join one of the parties? All their slogans and propaganda, it seems so damn - silly. How the hell can I get exited about clean teeth and underarm odor. People kill each other over these trifles… it doesn't make sense. There's going to be suicidal civil war, if that amendment passes, and I'm supposed to join one side or the other?”

Philip K. Dick book The Chromium Fence

"The Chromium Fence"
The Phillip K. Dick Reader

War , People , Hell , Sense

“You're killing yourself with cynicism. Your idols got taken away from you one by one and now you have nothing to give your love to.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

Love

“As always, when the opportunity arose, Joe took a long, astute look at the girl whom, if he could have managed it, he would have had as his mistress, or, even better, his wife. It did not seem possible that Wendy Wright had been born out of blood and internal organs like other people. In proximity to her he felt himself to be a squat, oily, sweating, uneducated nurt whose stomach rattled and whose breath wheezed. Near her he became aware of the physical mechanisms which kept him alive; within him machinery, pipes and valves and gas-compressors and fan belts had to chug away at a losing task, a labor ultimately doomed. Seeing her face, he discovered that his own consisted of a garish mask; noticing her body made him feel like a low-class windup toy. All her colors possessed a subtle quality, indirectly lit. Her eyes, those green and tumbled stones, looked impassively at everything; he had never seen fear in them, or aversion, or contempt. What she saw she accepted. Generally she seemed calm. But more than that she struck him as being durable, untroubled and cool, not subject to wear, or to fatigue, or to physical illness and decline. Probably she was twenty-five or -six, but he could not imagine her looking younger, and certainly she would never look older. She had too much control over herself and outside reality for that.”

Philip K. Dick book Ubik

Source: Ubik (1969), Chapter 5 (pp. 58-59)

People , Fear , Color , Feeling

“An Irishman hears that the banks are failing. He runs into the bank where he keeps his money and demands every cent of it. 'Yes sir,' the teller says politely. 'Do you want it in cash or in the form of a check?' The Irishman replies: 'Well, if you have it, I don't want it. But if you haven't got it, I must have it immediately.”

Philip K. Dick book The World Jones Made

The World Jones Made (1956)

Money

“The time, then, had come for him to poison himself so that an economic monopoly could be kept alive, a sprawling, interplan empire from which he now derived nothing.”

Philip K. Dick book The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Source: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), Chapter 10 (p. 161)

Time

“This one fact alone, Rachmael reflected, should have frightened the rational citizen. But—
The people did not know. The media had not reported it.”

Philip K. Dick

Source: Lies, Inc. (1984), Chapter 6 (p. 56)

People

“[Fiction] Appeals to the base lusts that hide in everyone no matter how respectable on the surface.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

“One thing I've found that I can do that I really enjoy is rereading my own writing, earlier stories and novels especially. It induces mental time travel, the same way certain songs you hear on the radio do … the whole thing returns, an eerie feeling that I'm sure you've experienced.”

Philip K. Dick

Introduction to The Golden Man (1980)

Way , Travel , Feeling , Time

““Is it my fault?” Joe said. “Did I make that quarter you gave me obsolete?” He felt anger.
“In some weird way,” Al said, “yes, it is your fault. But I don’t know how. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out.””

Philip K. Dick book Ubik

Source: Ubik (1969), Chapter 7 (p. 91)

Way , Anger

“This hypnagogic condition. Attention-faculty diminished so that twilight state obtains; world seen merely in symbolic, archetypal aspect, totally confused with unconscious material.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962)

World