Favorite Quotes

[Sibeling]

It will cost trillions of dollars to terraform a single planet. At a cost much more reasonable, and in a fraction of time required, we can engineer a human race that could live upon the planet. Insted of changing the planet to fit the man, we change the man to fit the planet.
~Clifford Simak "The Werewolf Principle"

I really like the quote because form me it represents the spirit of sci-fi: facing difficult problems and overcoming them in an inventive scientific way.

 

[ScottSF]

It will cost trillions of dollars to terraform a single planet. At a cost much more reasonable, and in a fraction of time required, we can engineer a human race that could live upon the planet. Insted of changing the planet to fit the man, we change the man to fit the planet.
~Clifford Simak "The Werewolf Principle"

I really like the quote because form me it represents the spirit of sci-fi: facing difficult problems and overcoming them in an inventive scientific way.

mind bender That reminds me of something I heard but the source I no longer remember. To protect our feet we can either cover the world in rubber or wear shoes. . . something like that

 

[HoopyFrood]

Well, as usual, the first post tends to get overlooked

Oooh, bitter.

 

[j d worthington]

Oooh, bitter.

Child, what are you on about? Bitter, pfuf! I didn't make the first post!

However, I was observing that what started out as "quotes from your favorite books" very quickly turned into "favorite quotes", period. And, um... we do have a tendency around here to overlook first posts quite a lot. The price of having such intelligence -- little patience!

And, to keep it on topic, here's an interesting thought I ran across; speaking of Poe's allowing Madeline Usher to perform the near-superhuman feats she does after she is interred, the writer has this to say:

"The use of such poetic licence by an author whose delight in the working of logic led him to invent the detective story is a measure of the extent to which the theme of premature burial transcended for him the status of a mere real-life bugaboo, to serve as his most potent symbol for his most prevalent concern: the belief that, by its fundamental and irremediable uncertainty, all human experience acts to undermine individual identity rather than fortify it." -- "The Dead Line: Horror and Tragedy", by Simon MacCulloch

 

[HoopyFrood]

Ooh! Well if you don't broadcast it, then I'll have to!

2,500 posts! Woo, go J.D

 

[HappyHippo]

'It goes, "Hruuuugh!" It is a hippopotamus! That's not my cow!'

Sam Vimes, THUD! - Terry Pratchett.

"It's a bit like being drunk,"
"What's wrong with being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."

(approximate quote) Ford Prefect to Arthur Dent, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And nearly everything said by Marvin...

 

[sci-fi girl]

Not very original I know, but I do love this quote:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Lord of The Rings"

 

[j d worthington]

Here are a couple from Irving, one delightful and one pointed (and both quite accurate):

"I was glad to break up school, and get back to my chamber, full of the mortification which a wise man in love experiences on finding his mistress wiser than himself." -- "Mountjoy"

"In a time of public infatuation, it requires no small exercise of courage to doubt a popular fallacy." -- "The Great Mississippi Bubble"

 

[Joel007]

A footnote by Terry Pratchett about Witches and broomsticks:
"this is a phallusy"

 

[Kitera]

"We are here, Fitz, you and I to change the future and the world..." - Royal Assasin, by Robin Hobb.

"My dream was dead in my arms." - Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb.

"Tell him that you dreamed of a wolf with porcupine quills in his muzzle. And that the wolf said to you, ‘As once you did, so I do now. I shelter and guide your son. I will put my life between him and any harm, and when my task is done, I will bring him safely home to you.’" - Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb

hehe, I'm a huge Robin Hobb fan.

Kitera

 

[Pyan]

- "It could be a torture chamber or a dungeon or a hideous pit or anything!"
- "It's just a student's bedroom, sergeant."
- "You see?"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms)

Sam Vimes could parallel process. Most husbands can. They learn to follow their own line of thought while at the same time listening to what their wives say. And the listening is important, because at any time they could be challenged and must be ready to quote the last sentence in full. A vital additional skill is being able to scan the dialogue for telltale phrases such as "and they can deliver it tomorrow" or "so I've invited them for dinner?" or "they can do it in blue, really quite cheaply."
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant)

"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)

How true, that last one!!!!!

 

[Joel007]

"It's logically impossible for the arrow to hit them!" The fat man threw up his hands. "It shouldn't do it! You must be giving me the wrong type of tortoise," he added accusingly. "We ough to try again with faster tortoises."
"Or slower arrows?"
"Possibly, possibly."
-- Axiom testing, Pyramids. (Pratchett)

 

[Pyan]

A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain—then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?

• - Job: A Comedy of Justice - Robert A. Heinlein

 

[Allegra]

I am a much better person with a dog on my lap.
- It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump: And Other Life Lessons I learned from Dogs by John O'Hurley

 

[K. Riehl]

After a time, I stopped at a hollow tree that had to be there. I reached inside and drew forth my silvered blade and strapped it to my waist. It mattered not that it had been somewhere in Amber. It was here now, for the wood that I walked was in Shadow.
Roger Zelazny- The Guns of Avalon

 

[Taltos]

Not exactly from a book, but from a book cover:
Translation from the back of Lukjanenko "Last Watch" (book 4, of the Watches):
"Did you really think this is going to be the last watch?"

 

[Joel007]

Can't remember exactly what the book said, but i was chuckling to myself when my wife came in and asked what was funny. So I told her "The main charcter has just walked into a room full of her friends, and they've all been half eaten. The only one moving is the one with something inside her body eating it." Reading Geomancer (Or was that bit in Tetrarch?)
Anyway, she wasn't impressed but I found the whole situation entertaining

 

[Seanie]

My fave quote is from Robin Hobb... I know this is bad but i cant remember which series its from, (i read all three of her trilogies in a row coz i luvd them so much & they hav all kinda run together in my head, lol), but its a cat asking its owner for fish which the owner doesnt have so the owner tells it sorry & the cats response is

"Sorry's not fish! what good is sorry?"

Not sure why i like it so much, its been stuck in my head since i read the books about 4 years ago & it still makes me giggle... When ppl say sorry to me its the first thing that pops into my head, I'v gotten some funny looks from friends when i'v said it to them, lol...

 

[Dead Riverdragon]

A little line I just read that made me laugh,

Even if, as Conphas feared, his triumph did not translate into the power to overthrow his uncle, Xerius, who suspected conspiracy whenever two of his slaves farted, would simply assume he possessed that power.

Toilet humour at its finest?

 

[Don]

My favorite quote of the Karla Trilogy, which begins with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, comes from the final story of the series:

SMILEY'S PEOPLE | Kirkus Reviews

Since writing the ultimate modern espionage fiction—The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor. Soldier, Spy—rigorous Mr. le Carre has understandably been setting himself new challenges; and sometimes he almost seems to be daring his audience to enjoy him. But storytelling genius isn't...

www.kirkusreviews.com

"Tatiana is the daughter of a man who is too important to exist," [Tatiana] said. He controls the whole of Russia, but he does not exist. When people arrest her, her father arranges for her to be freed. He does not exist but everyone is afraid of him. Tatiana does not exist either," she added. "There is only Alexandra."