The Consuming Fire Quotes

“Confidence isn’t about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing you can make it right.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“A library is not information; it is a means of preserving information. In every case, before memory or information can be stored, someone must decide what must be stored. Someone must choose. Someone must curate.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“A church is an institution separate from the religion it serves. It’s filled with people. And you know how people are.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Lenson Ornill took in Grayland II’s words, their intent and meaning, what they boded for the church as he understood it, his faith as he had developed it, and the genesis of his engagement with both, trapped in that small cabin, struggling to breathe, all those many long years ago. And then, quite without meaning to, he uttered the words to encapsulate what he was feeling about each, in this one epochal moment.

“Well, fuck,” he said.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“The plan is not the goal.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Don’t bring a spoon to a toothbrush fight,”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“the cynical could afford the luxury of their cynicism because of the stability of the system they mocked.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“You have doubted me. Doubt me no longer. You have come to destroy me. I am not destroyed. You have come to burn me. I am the consuming fire. You will feel what it is to burn.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Hiding the past never works as well as simply neglecting it.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“It’s this: Confidence isn’t about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing you can make it right.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“I was just talking about you,” Cardenia said, coming up to him. “To your imaginary friends, I see.” “They’re not imaginary. They’re just not real.” “Very subtle distinction.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Hey, you know what, basing an entire system of social, political and economic control on the vague, all-too-easily misinterpreted words of a single person claiming divine inspiration is probably not actually all that smart, now, is it.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“...because she wasn’t some fucking fictional character destined to do whatever some goddamn hack wanted her to do.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“There were more than a few scientists who knew one little thing, and then thought that knowledge was universally applicable to every other problem, to the point of excluding or discounting information from people whose specialty was that other problem.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Yes. The one advantage we had, which is a thing I brought to the enterprise, was the understanding that the plan was not the goal. The goal was the goal, and we were going to get to it however we could. And if it meant changing our plans, sometimes in the middle of executing them, then we would.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“That’s the point of rumors. They’re not based on anything, so nothing is very effective against them. Truth is no defense, and the people fielding these rumors know it.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“You came to see me about something?” “Yes, ma’am. A lawyer is here.” “Toss him out a window.” “Her, actually, I think.” “So toss her out, then. Equally defenestratable.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“It’s this: Confidence isn’t about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing you can make it right. You have doubts because it makes sense for you to have doubts. Just like it made sense for me to have doubts. But remember the plan is not the goal. What is your goal?” “To save as many lives as possible, through every means possible.” “Be confident in that, and everything else will follow.” “Thank you,” Cardenia said, after a minute. “What you said about confidence makes sense to me.” “You’re welcome,” Rachela I said. “I read it in a book once.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“The short version was death, disease, despots and destruction. The longer version had kept him up wondering what the hell was wrong with people.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“I’m saying you should come over.” “Maybe I’m avoiding you.” “You’re doing a fucking poor job of it, then, standing in my office.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“You suggested this to her, didn’t you.” “Why do you say that?” “Because I don’t know if you’ve ever met the Countess Nohamapetan, but she’s about as sentimental as a fucking alligator.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“the plan was not the goal. The goal was the goal, and we were going to get to it however we could.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“The Church of the Interdependency and other religions found their places of worship jammed, as the faithful, the newly faithful and the not-actually-at-all-faithful-but-this-is-some-weird-shit-and-I’m-hedging-my-bets came in and, depending on experience, prayed, meditated or wondered what it was exactly they were supposed to do now that they were there. Priests, ministers, rabbis, imams and other religious leaders were on one hand delighted to be useful in a moment of spiritual and existential crisis and on the other hand well aware that this was the theological equivalent of shoppers making a panic run at the market, with their new parishioners grabbing at anything and hoping it would get them through.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Confidence isn’t about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing you can make it right. You have doubts because it makes sense for you to have doubts. Just like it made sense for me to have doubts. But remember the plan is not the goal. What is your goal?”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Kiva considered that she might be developing a thing for Fundapellonan, which on one hand would be a very not-Kiva thing to do, but on the other hand who gave a fuck if it was “not-Kiva,” because she wasn’t some fucking fictional character destined to do whatever some goddamn hack wanted her to do.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“When things are hidden, there will always be people who object, and who will then go out of their way to preserve and store what is being hidden, so that someone can find it later, either intentionally or by simply stumbling over it. This is why I never tried to hide alternative takes of history. It makes them more attractive to future historians when you do. I smothered them under strata of official history instead.” “Never hide, just overwhelm,” Cardenia joked.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“It was the ‘he likes someone else and now I’m sad and want to go eat an entire pie’ thing.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“It’s conspiracy mongering.” “I agree. But not all conspiracies crop up because someone forgot to adjust their tinfoil hat, ma’am. Sometimes they’re part of a disinformation campaign.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“Let’s just say that I anticipated that when I needed to leave Ponthieu, it would be suddenly, and that I might be chased. And that those chasing me might prefer that if I couldn’t be caught, that I should be rendered into very small pieces.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire

“I will communicate that issue to the countess.” “Do that. Also communicate to her the part where I said ‘fuck you.’ Make sure you phrase it precisely that way.”
― John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire