Daniel Bensen > Daniel's Quotes

“America was exhausted. The libertarians had made freedom unbearable, the evangelicals had made faith unbearable, the social justice movement had made equality unbearable, the lawyers had made justice unbearable, loud people in Uncle Sam hats had made patriotism unbearable, and the entirety of capitalism over the last two centuries had made industry unbearable. Americans were sick of all the virtues and ready for a straightforward, no-nonsense villain.”
― Scott Alexander, Unsong

“Seen from Earth, a comet is a prodigy, coming out of the void for no reason, returning to the void for no reason. They call it unpredictable because they cannot predict it. From the comet’s own point of view, nothing could be simpler. It starts in the outer darkness, aims directly at the sun, and never stops till it gets there. Everything else spins in its same orbit forever. The comet heads for the source. They call it crooked because it is too straight. They call it unpredictable because it is too fixed. They call it chaotic because it is too linear.”
― Scott Alexander, Unsong

“Every place a foot or hoof had turned the soil over displayed broken bits of glass or plastic, ceramic or alloy, or bright and nigh-microscopic beads and polygons of some unrusted, everlasting substance he did not recognize. The soil beneath the grass was a rubbish heap of ten thousand shards of unknown, unrecognizable tools and toys and manmade things.”
― John C. Wright, Terrors of Pangaea