Quotes from work
Artifact

Artifact
Gregory Benford

A small cube of black rock has been unearthed in a 3500-year-old Mycenaean tomb. An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age, its purpose, and its origins are unknown. Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft andespionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war. Its substance has scientists baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth. It is mystery and madness -- an enigma with no equal in recordedhistory. It is mankind's greatest discovery ... and worst nightmare. It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.

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“It was one thing to be instantly attracted to a woman, and another to like her independence, the way she took no notice of what he thought of her, one way or the other. She was indeed a modern woman—not aggressive, yet not submissive. A self-possessed apartness, a lack of cling…
Yes, that was what held his attention: her reserve. The promise of depths you could not guess merely by seeing her in a swimsuit.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 2, Chapter 6 (p. 80; ellipsis represents a minor elision of narration)
Artifact (1985)

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“The past was a jigsaw puzzle and you never had all the pieces.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 1, Chapter 1 (p. 10)
Artifact (1985)

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““We will be just like the USA. Only we will be more honest.”
”We’ve got two parties.”
“No you do not. You have only the party of the banks, of the money men, and they divide it into two pieces for your voting.””

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 2, Chapter 7 (p. 86)
Artifact (1985)

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“But no, the friend’s indictment was off target; he simply liked them tall, as long as they didn’t slump down in a forlorn effort to appear shorter. It seemed obvious to him that no woman looked good trying to be something she wasn’t.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 2, Chapter 1 (p. 42)
Artifact (1985)

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“Professors everywhere deplored examinations as an archaic technique, a fossil that recalled little red schoolhouses and memorizing the capitals of all the states. Regular progress and daily diligence mattered more, they felt, not an hour spent compressing months of learning onto a few sheets of paper. Far better to stress homework, classroom participation and the professor’s judgment. Regrettably, the large size of classes, and the requirements of society itself for pseudo-objective standards kept the exam structure firmly in place.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 4, Chapter 1 (pp. 155-156)
Artifact (1985)

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“Just because something’s crazy, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 1 (p. 228)
Artifact (1985)

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“That was what drew him to mathematics. Not because it was rarefied, but because it probed to the subtle, deeper reality. People said that mathematicians were unworldly, and yammered on about how Einstein couldn’t make correct change. Nonsense. Einstein just didn’t give a damn. It was the subtle, the beautiful that concerned him.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 2, Chapter 6 (p. 76)
Artifact (1985)

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“Hubris. They disliked questions unless there were clear answers. They believed so much in their method that they conjured up certainty out of undeniable risk.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 6, Chapter 6 (p. 349)
Artifact (1985)

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“Archeology is mostly a process of making associations between objects, and every discovery opens up possible resonances with things we already have. Sometimes, simply wandering through a museum or a site can open your eyes.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 3, Chapter 1 (p. 107)
Artifact (1985)

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“This was what never failed to stir her—the unfathomable gulf between today’s thinking and the way the ancients thought. They were truly alien, not merely innocent agrarians with a foolish faith.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 4 (p. 246)
Artifact (1985)

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“In popularizing a scientific development it was always crucial to sail the narrow strait between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public befuddlement.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 7 (p. 270)
Artifact (1985)

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“Maybe is not a theory, you know, it is merely maybe.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 4, Chapter 6 (p. 203)
Artifact (1985)

Gregory Benford photo

“Still, Claire hated Charlotte Brontë’s comment that she would have given all her talent to be beautiful. That condemned you always to play somebody else’s game—and, when your looks failed—finally to lose.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 4 (p. 245)
Artifact (1985)

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“She stood up. “Professional? Ha! My father used to say, you have to be able to tell a tracheotomist from a cutthroat. Well, I can.””

Gregory Benford Artifact

Artifact (1985), Part 4, Chapter 4 (p. 186)

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“She always dressed well, but he recognized the signs of insecurity; certitude was inversely proportional to the amount of makeup.”

Gregory Benford Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 3 (p. 243)
Artifact (1985)

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