Jon > Jon's Quotes

“Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”
― Aeschylus

“All the truth in the world is held in stories.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“I will either find a way, or make one.”
― Hannibal Barca

“ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ”
― Leonidas

“Come and take them”
― Plutarch

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It's attractive because it's simple, it's direct, it's almost always available as an option. When you can't think of a good rebuttal for your opponent's argument, you can always punch them in the face.”
― James S.A. Corey, Abaddon’s Gate

“Stars are better off without us.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes

“What kind of half-assed apocalypse are they running down there?” Amos said. “Give ’em a break. It’s their first.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes

“If life transcends death

Then I will seek for you there

If not, then there too”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban’s War

“You can tell you’ve found a really interesting question when nobody wants you to answer it.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Humans can be better than they are, so let’s do that.”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban's War

“Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”
― James S.A. Corey, Abaddon's Gate

“Looking back through history, there are a lot more men who thought they were Alexander the Great than men who actually were.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Against all evidence, I keep thinking the assholes are outliers.”
― James S.A. Corey, Babylon's Ashes

“Distributed responsibility is the problem. One person gives the order, another carries it out. One can say they didn’t pull the trigger, the other that they were just doing what they were told, and everyone lets themselves off the hook.”
― James S.A. Corey, Tiamat's Wrath

“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”
― Oscar Wilde

“It is more profitable to give wages than to receive them.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: A Fiction in the Form of a Film Script

“Perhaps the only difference between the comedian, the psychologist, and the philosopher is that you can’t pretend to be a comedian.”
― Neel Burton

“If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they'll still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another's fur. Anna had walked on a moon of Jupiter. She'd look up through a dome-covered sky at the great red spot, close enough to see the swirls and eddies of a storm larger than her home world. She'd tasted water thawed from ice as old as the solar system itself. And it was that human dissatisfaction, that human audacity that had put her there.”
― James S.A. Corey, Abaddon’s Gate

“Every empire grows until its reach exceeds its grasp.”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban's War

“There are people I love. There are people who have loved me. I fought for what I believed, protected those I could, and stood my ground against the encroaching darkness. Good enough.”
― James S.A. Corey, Tiamat's Wrath

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
― Plato

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire

“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”
― Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle

“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five