Extremis Quotes

“Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind's equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They'll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“after our split, I wanted to believe that whatever had been between us was unique, that it could never happen again. Because if it was exceptional, it must be an exception, maybe even the exception that proved the rule. And the rule was that I would always be alone, and could never trust anyone.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“After the adrenaline rush of combat, there’s a powerful parasympathetic backlash, and the body craves rest so badly that you can fall into a kind of stupor. That’s why Napoleon knew the best time to counterattack was immediately after the battle, when the other side was still drugged with victory.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“It’s like America,” he went on. “I mean look at us, we’re always telling ourselves how peace-loving we are. ‘We’re a peace-loving people, we love peace.’ I guess that’s why we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, why we have over seven hundred overseas military bases in a hundred and thirty countries, and why we’ve been at war pretty much continuously since we were just a bunch of colonies. Shoot, you think if a Martian visited Earth and tried to identify the most peace-loving culture, he’d pick the U.S. of A.?”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“Well, if anybody ever compiles a list of the high-water marks of human cleverness, I’m afraid that’s unlikely to merit consideration.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“bonhomie”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“right now. Today. I’d been foolish, a coward even, to have waited so”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind’s equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They’ll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind’s equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They’ll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“It’s like America,” he went on. “I mean look at us, we’re always telling ourselves how peace-loving we are. ‘We’re a peace-loving people, we love peace.’ I guess that’s why we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, why we have over seven hundred overseas military bases in a hundred and thirty countries, and why we’ve been at war pretty much continuously since we were just a bunch of colonies. Shoot, you think if a Martian visited Earth and tried to identify the most peace-loving culture, he’d pick the U.S. of A.? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, mind you. We’re a warlike people, it’s obvious, we’re good at war and we like it. I just don’t know why we can’t admit it to ourselves. I bet sales of Prozac would go down if we could.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind’s equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They’ll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive. And”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“You see, cancer is simply nature's way of making you want to die.'

Tatsu.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“Because if it was exceptional, it must be an exception, maybe even the exception that proved the rule. And the rule was that I would always be alone, and could never trust anyone. But my partnership with Dox didn’t fit comfortably with that rule. And my relationship with Delilah suggested that Midori hadn’t just been a one-off, either. So now, some wretched part of me was intent on turning Dox and Delilah into exceptions, too, so it could pat itself on the back and proclaim, “See? I told you so.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“What I was doing, I was sabotaging myself. Well, it was time I stopped.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“There was a pause. She said, “I hate you.” I nodded. “I know.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“If you want to create opportunities, you have to create movement.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis

“If you focus on the risks, they’ll multiply in your mind and eventually paralyze you. You want to focus on the task, instead, on doing what needs to be done.”
― Barry Eisler, Extremis