Quotes from book

Small Gods

“And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: "Psst!”

“Yes, but humans are more important than animals,' said Brutha.
'This is a point of view often expressed by humans,' said Om.”

“Belief, he says. Belief shifts. People start out believing in the god and end up believing in the structure.”

“Om began to feel the acute depression that steals over every realist in the presence of an optimist.”

“Last night there seemed to be a chance. Anything was possible last night. That was the trouble with last nights. They were always followed by this mornings.”

“It's hard to explain," said Brutha. "But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave… you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.”

“Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent protection.”

“When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary.”

“Thou shalt not submit thy god to market forces.”

“The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels down, where it is still possible to get things done.”

“The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to.”

“There’s no point in believing in things that exist.”

“One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.”

“I think," he said, "I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one.”

“Words are the litmus paper of the mind.”

“Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.”

“The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy but they were listening in gibberish.”

“The turtle moves.”

“We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork.”