Dawn Quotes

“You have a mismatched pair of genetic characteristics. Either alone would have been useful, would have aided the survival of your species. But the two together are lethal. It was only a matter of time before they destroyed you."

[...]

Jdahya made a rustling noise that could have been a sigh, but that did not seem to comer from his mouth or throat. "You are intelligent," he said. "That's the newer of the two characteristics, and the one you might have put to work to save yourselves. You are potentially one of the most intelligent species we've found, though your focus is different from ours. Still, you had a good start in the life sciences, and even in genetics."

"What's the second characteristic?"

"You are hierarchical. That's the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It's a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as problem, but took pride in it or din not notice it at all..." The rattling sounded again.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Yes,” he said, “intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike. But your denial doesn’t matter.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“First learning, then proving I’d learned. Knowing and using the knowledge aren’t the same thing.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“You are hierarchical. That’s the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It’s a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as a problem, but took pride in it or did not notice it at all …” The rattling sounded again. “That was like ignoring cancer. I think your people did not realize what a dangerous thing they were doing.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Your people contain incredible potential, but they die without using much of it.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“A partner must be biologically interesting, attractive to us, and you are fascinating. You are horror and beauty in rare combination. In a very real way, you've captured us, and we can't escape. But you're more than only the composition and the workings of your bodies. You are your personalities, your cultures.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“There was no real comfort in being alone with her thoughts, her memories, but somehow the illusion of freedom lessened her despair.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Yes,” he said, “intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Human beings are more alike than different—damn sure more alike than we like to admit. I wonder if the same thing wouldn’t have happened eventually, no matter which two cultures gained the ability to wipe one another out along with the rest of the world.” Lilith”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Grief was grief, she thought. It was pain and loss and despair—an abrupt end where there should have been a continuing.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike. But your denial doesn’t matter. A cancer growing in someone’s body will go on growing in spite of denial.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“It’s wrong to assume that I must be a sex you’re familiar with,” it said, “but as it happens, I’m male.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“I can’t unfind you,” he said.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“For Lilith, it was a comfortable, mindless activity that gave her something to do when there was nothing she could do about her situation.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Down on Earth,” she said carefully, “there are no people left to draw lines on maps and say which sides of those lines are the right sides. There is no government left. No human government, anyway.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Can you find your way home, Lilith?” “We’re an adaptable species,” she said, refusing to be stopped, “but it’s wrong to inflict suffering just because your victim can endure it.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“A cancer growing in someone's body will go on growing in spite of denial. And a complex combination of genes that work together to make you intelligent as well as hierarchical will still handicap you whether you acknowledge it or not.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“She had learned to keep her sanity by accepting things as she found them, adapting herself to new circumstances by putting aside the old ones whose memories might overwhelm her. She”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Your body said one thing. Your words said another.” It moved a sensory arm to the back of his neck, looping one coil loosely around his neck. “This is the position,” it said. “I’ll stop now if you like.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Let go of me.” It smoothed its tentacles again. “Be grateful, Joe. I’m not going to let go of you.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“It was literally the best food she had tasted in two hundred and fifty years.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“We couldn’t survive as a people if we were always confined to one ship or one world.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“You are horror and beauty in rare combination. In a very real way, you’ve captured us, and we can’t escape.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Lilith watched them enviously. They didn’t lie often to humans because their sensory language had left them with no habit of lying—only of withholding information, refusing contact. Humans, on the other hand, lied easily and often. They could not trust one another. They could not trust one of their own who seemed too close to aliens, who stripped off her clothing and lay down on the ground to help her jailer.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Joseph sighed. “I don’t understand why the sight of you should scare me so,” Joseph said. He did not sound frightened. “You don’t look that threatening. Just … very different.” “Different is threatening to most species,” Nikanj answered. “Different is dangerous. It might kill you. That was true to your animal ancestors and your nearest animal relatives. And it’s true for you.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“What is it?” she asked. “Flesh. More like mine than like yours. Different from mine, too, though. It’s … the ship.” “You’re kidding. Your ship is alive?”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Different is threatening to most species,” Nikanj answered. “Different is dangerous. It might kill you. That was true to your animal ancestors and your nearest animal relatives. And it’s true for you.” Nikanj smoothed its head tentacles. “It’s safer for your people to overcome the feeling on an individual basis than as members of a large group. That’s why we’ve handled this the way we have.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Humanity in its attempt to destroy itself had made the world unlivable.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“Earth is a big place. Even if parts of it are uninhabitable, it’s still a damn big place.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“We dull your natural fear of strangers and of difference. We keep you from injuring or killing us or yourselves.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn