Stories of Your Life and Others

by Ted Chiang

‘I’ve tried that myself: ignoring the government, seeing if it would go away. It hasn’t.’

Similarly, knowledge of the future was incompatible with free will. What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible for me to know the future.

shifted their attention away from original research and toward hermeneutics: interpreting the scientific work of metahumans.

Obedience he might have managed, but sincere, heartfelt love? That was a ransom he couldn’t pay.

Girls have always been told that their value is tied to their appearance; their accomplishments are always magnified if they’re pretty and diminished if they’re not.

Maturity means seeing the differences, but realizing they don’t matter.

guess it’s true what they say: love is a little bit like calli. When you love someone, you don’t really see what they look like.

Because seeing beauty feels like love. You feel like you’ve got a crush on a really good-looking person, just by looking at them.

I guess being smart and funny doesn’t mean you’re in the same league as someone, you have to be equally good-looking too.