Devolution Quotes

“It’s great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Adversity introduces us to ourselves.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“People only see the present through the lenses of their personal pasts.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Why are we always looking for someone else to save us instead of trying to save ourselves?”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“I heard a theory once that if aliens ever do come calling, they may very well be hostile, because the same brains that mastered spaceflight learned to think by hunting.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“I think the human mind isn’t comfortable with mysteries. We’re always looking for answers to the unexplained. And if an answer can’t come from facts, we’ll try to cobble one together from old stories.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Denial is an irrational dismissal of danger. Phobia is an irrational fear of one.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“The whole country rests on a system that sacrifices resilience for comfort.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“They all want to live “in harmony with nature” before some of them realize, too late, that nature is anything but harmonious.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is best able to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Maybe some instinct told them it was time to swap evolution for devolution, reach back to who they were to take back what was theirs.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you. That’s why most weapons of war are designed to injure instead of kill. Wounded are more of a drain than the dead.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Different places, different ages, completely different cultures, and yet they came up with similar weapons and tactics. Is there something about how we’re wired, something universally human?”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on. —CORDELL HULL, secretary of state to President Franklin Delano R”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“We can't just mourn the deaths, we also have to celebrate the lives. We need Anne Frank's diary, but we also need her smile on the cover.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Selfless suffering feels good for short crusades, but as a way of life, it’s unsustainable.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Those poor bastards didn’t want a rural life. They expected an urban life in a rural setting. They tried to adapt their environment instead of adapting to it.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“I couldn’t believe that something so beautiful could come from fire.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“I trust my nose, ears, eyes. But my brain…”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“If there’s anything worse than visualizing your own death, it’s knowing that you caused it.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Are you going to deny that King’s leverage was based on the fear of Malcolm X?” Sensing an opening, I tried to break the siege. “An open hand works when the alternative is a fist.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“A lot less energy to convert animal into animal than vegetable into animal. And the brain boost we got from that bonanza. Tools, language, cooperation. You can see the incentive for all the advances that make us human. More meat. Bigger brains. Bigger brains. More meat. I wonder what it looked like, when we first tasted fresh blood. What did we think? What did we feel? That moment when everything changed. From scavenger to predator. Hunted to hunter.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“People only see the present through the lenses of their personal pasts.” Her lips soured. “Maybe that’s my problem too.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Couldn’t get back up because his parents never let him get knocked down?”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Whenever someone said “Good luck” or “Godspeed,” I only heard “Better you than me.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“The human heart can only absorb so much pain.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“These trees are happy. Yes, I said it. Why wouldn’t they be, in this rich, soft, rain-washed soil.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“All positivity all the time. Learn to fly, even if it’s in the Hindenburg.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“People are the problem. Nature is your friend.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Your childhood is spent being nurtured, protected, loved unconditionally while your adulthood is spent searching in vain for substitutes. Mate, government, God…”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre