Hans G. Schantz

“been unimaginable to folks a century ago.” “Real socialism has never been tried,” Abby asserted. “Those were unsuccessful and flawed attempts.” “Would you say the Aztecs never practiced real human sacrifice,” Dad asked dryly, “because they never did get their crops to grow reliably no matter how much blood they shed?”
― Hans G. Schantz, The Hidden Truth: A Science Fiction Techno-Thriller

“The heart of democracy is violence, Miss Tagwynn,” Esterbrook said. “In order to decide what to do, we take a count of everyone for and against it, and then do whatever the larger side wishes to do. We’re having a symbolic battle, its outcome decided by simple numbers. It saves us time and no end of trouble counting actual bodies—but don’t mistake it for anything but ritualized violence. And every few years, if the person we elected doesn’t do the job we wanted, we vote him out of office—we symbolically behead him and replace him with someone else. Again, without the actual pain and bloodshed, but acting out the ritual of violence nonetheless. It’s actually a very practical way of getting things done.”
― Jim Butcher, The Aeronaut's Windlass

“Do you know what it looks like when a snot-nosed greenhorn like you comes in and finishes his work with no overtime? How are the other guys supposed to justify putting in a few extra hours at time-and-a-half when you’re pulling that shit?”
― Justin Robinson, The Good Fight

“When a kid spends his entire school career being told that pursuing goals isn’t worth it, that working hard and achieving things will only bring him misery, why would he ever bother putting the effort into living a productive life?”
― Justin Robinson, The Good Fight

“There isn’t going to be any big sting operation to catch people breaking the new law; they just want to meddle, and have another weapon to use against people who are more successful than they ‘should be’.”
― Justin Robinson, The Good Fight