Devolution Quotes

“And Professor Tongun, from Sudan, “Like a tree in the forest, America doesn’t hear foreign suffering.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“I’m open to any discovery, as long as it’s based on hard, physical evidence. Facts are supposed to banish monsters… She sighs. …not invite them i”
― 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 Roosevelt”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

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

“It’s a blessing and a curse, the human mind. We’re the only creatures on Earth that can imagine our own death. But”—she held up my spear—“we can also imagine ways to prevent it.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Fear and anxiety. I’ve lived with the latter all my life. Now it’s gone.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Knowing you saw something is different from knowing what you saw.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“What do you call a dog on a leash? A meal on a string.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Facts are supposed to banish monsters… She sighs. …not invite them in.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“The only term I can think of is “bloodlust,” because that’s what it sounds like when chimps tear a monkey apart. It’s not like any other kill you’d ever see, not like when a leopard brings down a gazelle or even sharks rip into a seal. Those are cold, mechanical. Apes go crazy. Hopping and dancing. Don’t tell me they don’t enjoy it.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“You can’t blame the people in Greenloop for having their cupboards bare. The whole country rests on a system that sacrifices resilience for comfort.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution

“They think they’re at a petting zoo, or in a Disney movie. They’ve never learned the real rules, so they think they can just make up their own. This is called anthropomorphizing.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Seriously, like Steve Jobs playing the orchestra,*8 my orchestra is this land. When you’re here, surrounded by it, connecting to it on a visceral level, you realize that that connection is the only way to save our planet. That’s been the problem all along, destroying the natural world because we’ve created so much distance from it.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Need. That’s what makes a village. That’s what we are now, and what holds us together is need. I won’t help you if you don’t help me. That is the social contract.” I couldn’t really process what she was saying.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“You can’t blame the people in Greenloop for having their cupboards bare. The whole country rests on a system that sacrifices resilience for c”
― 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.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“And with the final question, “Why didn’t they fight back?” came the inevitable dismissal. “Because it would not have made a difference.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Those poor things. They sounded so scared and angry. And why wouldn’t they? What else should they feel when some horrible person released them into an environment they weren’t born for?”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“After all, why would a doctor worry about the confidentiality of her patient if she didn’t believe that patient was still alive?”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Bigfoot's as American as apple pie and guns in schools.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Living out in the country, we get to appreciate our city time because it’s voluntary instead of mandatory, a treat instead of a chore.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“They're not good or evil. They're just hungry.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

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

“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

“You can’t ask people to give up personal, tangible comforts for some ethereal ideal. That’s why communism failed. That’s why all those primitive, hippie, “back to the land” communes failed. Selfless suffering feels good for short crusades, but as a way of life, it’s unsustainable.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution

“I have the power to cause you pain.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“challenging readers to watch these old movies “with the eyes of a six-year-old child, eyes that flick constantly from the terror on the screen to the dark, rustling trees outside the window.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Go into the woods to lose sight and memory of the crimes of your contemporaries. —JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

“Terror is a powerful weapon. Terror clouds thought.”
― Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre