Greg Bear citations

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

““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.””

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

“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.”

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

““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.””

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

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

“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?”

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

“Apocalypse could not be repealed by the democratic process.”

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

“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?”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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?”

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

“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.”