Richard Swan > Richard's Quotes

“It was almost funny, how even lying here terrified and half-expecting to be dead at any moment, his bureaucratic fear of reprimand, of public embarrassment was stronger than his physical fear of dying.”
― James Jones, The thin red line

“Is it really worth it to die, to be dead, just to prove to everybody that you’re not a coward?”
― James Jones

“It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.”
― Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines

“How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?“

Winston thought. “By making him suffer”, he said.

“Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy – everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Damn it!' John said. 'This isn't China.'
'No,' Roger said. 'This is a country of fifty million people that imports nearly half its food requirements.'
'We might have to tighten our belts.'
'A tight belt,' said Roger, 'looks silly on a skeleton.”
― John Christopher, The Death of Grass

“I know what it's like to try and be better. To set yourself a code to live by and to think that maybe you've succeeded. I also know what it's like to have temptation waved in front of your face. To be tested. And to fail.”
― Luke Arnold, The Last Smile in Sunder City

“So, I opened the Angel door. The one that led out to nothing but a patch of empty air. It had been useful when there was magic in the world and folks took to the skies like it was nothing. Now it was only handy if you wanted to kiss the cobblestones at fifty miles an hour.”
― Luke Arnold, The Last Smile in Sunder City

“Revenge was the best revenge.”
― Essa Hansen, Nophek Gloss

“Bad things can make good people. Good people can make bad things.”
― Essa Hansen, Nophek Gloss

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“The Sienese invasion had taught the Nayeni a great deal. Not the least of its lessons was that no one has a [i]right[/i] to rule, only the strength to defend their claim.”
― J T Greathouse, The Garden of Empire

“Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Putting a damp spoon back in the bowl is the tea-drinking equivalent of sharing a needle. And I did not want to end up with the tea-drinking equivalent of AIDS.”
― Alan Partridge, I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan

“Always better to be a bastard than a fool”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“but my da was a sad bastard miner and couldn’t play the arse-horn after a quart of beans and cabbage.”
― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief