Ben Aaronovitch > Ben's Quotes

“You need to read more science fiction. Nobody who reads science fiction comes out with this crap about the end of history”
― Iain Banks

“Colonel Otto, do you have a, perhaps, fuller and more detailed account than your preliminary one of why my Imperial Security building is now largely an underground installation? From a technical perspective.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

“My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you're born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train's pulled into Piccadilly Circus they've become a Londoner.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Moon Over Soho

“I am not a fate worse than death, dammit!”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“The Imperial Service could win a war without coffee, but would prefer not to have to.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

“If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them - such people are not to be trusted.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah..." Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word.

"Equals?" Miles hazarded.

"Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game

“Sorry, no. I refuse to join an army which practices human sacrifice and has no adequate pension plan.”
― Toby Frost, Wrath of the Lemming Men

“I saw a dark void under the platform and had just enough time to think: "Fuck me he's a earthbender.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground