But The Stars Quotes

“Dante nods, appreciating their friendship. “What is reality anyway? Is it ever anything more than a shared experience?” Angel says, “Reality is overrated. This whole wide universe is nothing more than a bunch of excitations in various quantum fields briefly materializing as particles rather than energy. Reality has always been an illusion. Nothing’s really present once you exclude the electromagnetic force. Most of what makes us up is empty space anyway.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“The stars?” Mags asks, not making the connection. “What are stars?” In a typical response, Angel replies in a manner that is technically correct and yet somehow vague, saying, “Matter radiating energy.” “And what is life?” Dante asks. This time, Angel’s quiet so Dante says what she’s thinking. “Life is the inverse—the opposite—the exact reverse of that process. It’s matter absorbing energy, using it.” Angel nods but doesn’t seem convinced. Mags is quiet. Dante says, “Whether it’s us or them, everyone’s looking for some supernatural, metaphysical explanation for what life is and how it came to be, but I think the answer is deceptively simple. Atoms use energy to form molecules.” She breathes deeply, trying to condense decades of thinking and reasoning into a few short sentences, hoping they’re coherent.  “Molecules distribute energy the only way they can, by forming more and more complex combinations. And that’s what life is—billions of years spent rearranging and redistributing energy, forming ever more complex molecules until those individual molecules form chains containing hundreds of billions of atoms.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“We’re all children of the stars... I know. I know it sounds clichèd. Just another pious platitude, something to engrave on a plaque and hang above the sink in the bathroom, but here we are, and so are they, or they were. For all our differences, we both originated from the thin, wispy dust swirling between the stars.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Life is a privilege,” she says, struggling to hide the tremor in her voice. “A wonder beyond compare, more beautiful than the rings of a gas giant, more colorful than a nebula, more awe-inspiring that a spiral galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars. You said it yourself. Physically, we’re insignificant and yet we aren’t. Life is the greatest marvel in the universe. We deserve a chance.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Peace is an illusion. It’s as fickle as all of this.” He points at her. “You can’t fool me. I’ve read your history. You’ve never known peace on your world. Not real peace. What makes you think you could ever know it out here among the stars? “No, the only peace you’ve ever known has come from the barrel of a gun. You find peace by exploiting others. You see conflict on your own world and find peace by turning away and closing your eyes, pretending all the petty, selfish, self-centered ideologies that lead to war don’t exist.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“But you know that’s not an answer,” Dante replies. “Why you and not someone else, another of your kind.” She laughs. “There’s no reason for any of us, is there? Not us personally. Not really. We could be zombies. We could be machines. Programs. We could be anyone else but us and the result would largely be the same, and yet here we are—so why us?”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“For all the advances over the past five hundred years, from the science of physics to biology and philosophy, no one on Earth is any closer to defining consciousness. Oh, there are the dull, sterile, dictionary definitions and spiritualistic mumbo jumbo, but it’s all just a guess. In some ways, it’s like trying to imagine how a computer chip works having never seen anything beyond its black outer casing, having no idea about its intricate, microscopic, electronic structure. It seems the soul is as incomprehensible as magic. Technically, everything she needs to know is right there, but something’s missing, some explanation for which there’s no substitute.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Your movies are—honestly—embarrassing. You entertain yourselves with depictions of us as monsters. We are the mythical beasts of your ancient past, destined to be vanquished by a mighty hero. We are Medusa. Hydra. Cyclops. The Minotaur. “All the aliens you imagine today are but the monsters of yesteryear. Think about that. Why would that be so? What does that tell you about the inner working of your own mind? Your fears? Your frail culture? What does that expectation say about your own dark desires? Your failings?”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Your movies are—honestly—embarrassing. You entertain yourselves with depictions of us as monsters. We are the mythical beasts of your ancient past, destined to be vanquished by a mighty hero. We are Medusa. Hydra. Cyclops. The Minotaur.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Think of how preposterous you are. You’re a collection of molecules that is insignificant on any scale—whether relative to this module, the ship, an asteroid, a comet, or a planet. You’re pitifully small compared to even a dwarf star—and yet here you are.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Water isn’t actually part of a waterfall. It simply passes through the falls and then it is gone,” Cap replies. “In the same way, every aspect of your lives is transitory. From the two million blood cells that die every second within your arteries to your skin, your hair, your bones, the fiber of your muscles, the neurons in your brain. None of them last much more than a handful of years. They just trickle a little slower over the rocks. You are water cascading down the side of a cliff, only you don’t know it. And one day, the river will run dry.” Dante falls silent. “Everything about you is fleeting. Everything except for one thing—consciousness. That’s the only thing that remains constant throughout your entire lives.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“You don’t know what it’s like. You’ve flown under the radar. You don’t understand how it feels to be accused, despised, not trusted, hated, and all without reason, all because you were nervous, because you tried too hard to fit in, because you made the mistake of wanting to be normal just like everyone else.” Cap smiles, only slightly, but his lips turn upwards. His cheeks rise, unable to hide his delight. “Look at him,” Angel says, jabbing at the air, pointing at him with disdain. “He loves this shit. You want to know why he told the truth? Because he knew it would tear us apart.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Stars explode. It’s something they do really well. They wipe out entire solar systems. Chances are, that’s what’ll happen here in the long run. These binaries will merge. The newly born star will eventually burn through its fuel and its outer shell will explode violently into space, stripping the planets bare. Then we’ll be recycled into the heavens, perhaps to form other asteroids, comets, planets. Maybe even other lifeforms.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“I think, therefore I am, right?” Angel asks. “And yet thought is fleeting. The protons that make up your body have a half-life of ten to the power of thirty-two. You and I will struggle to get much beyond ten to the power of two years in age. All the constituent parts of this great I am will be around a helluva lot longer than either of us, but they won’t think, they won’t reason, they won’t be aware of anything at all.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“You’ve seen photos of a supernova, right? We’re that thin shell blown off into space. Eons pass and we have the arrogance to claim ourselves as somehow different from an asteroid or a moon, even though we share the same elements. We’re special. We’re alive, we say, as though we’re something other than physical, something other than a tiny assortment of scorched atoms.” “But we are,” Dante says. “Are we?” Angel asks. “Or are we kidding ourselves? You think we’re trapped here in an illusion. I think life’s always been an illusion.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“It’s all an illusion,” Angel says. “It always has been. I mean, think about the audacity of our lives. We’re junk. We’re the scraps of nuclear material that escaped from a dying star billions of years ago. When all else fell into the core, collapsing to form a neutron star or the eternal darkness of a black hole, these tiny atoms that make up my body somehow escaped.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“We like to flatter ourselves,” Angel says, “We like to think we’re free. But freedom is an illusion.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“In physics, we describe choices as a closed system, where all the variables are present, but there are no closed systems. Everything is open. Everything is interconnected. There’s no freewill because nothing is free. We accept this at a physical level, knowing the atoms in our bodies are gravitationally bound to every other atom everywhere else within the entire universe, regardless of how distant, but then we contradict ourselves. Oh, I’m free because I feel free, because I want to be free. Honestly, it’s delusional—laughable.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Comedy is highly subjective—not only between cultures but over time. Things that were funny to the Romans don’t even elicit a smile from modern audiences. Jokes in one culture rarely translate to another. What are the odds of humor transcending species originating on different planets?”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“You can’t choose between options you don’t know about—things you don’t understand. If I ask you to choose the best song ever written, you can only select from those you’ve heard, those you remember, so it’s not really a choice, it’s a narrow, limited selection.” Dante nods. Makes sense. “Now, if I remind you of a song. Perhaps if I subtly influence you. Maybe I hum the tune before our conversation, or I talk about the band over lunch. What then? Have you really chosen for yourself? Or have you been corralled? Politicians do this all the time.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“The stars. They’re stunning. That’s all we ever really are, right? Stardust. Essentially, we’re all the same. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Carbon. Just a bunch of wet chemistry moderating sodium ion pathways.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Even among humanity, there’s no agreement on the various shapes. Somewhat ironically, the constellations are entirely alien to people from different cultures. The Aborigines thought of Orion as two brothers fishing in a canoe, while the Hindus saw dogs chasing a deer. The Lakota Indians thought of Orion as a bison charging across the grassy plains.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Men and aliens,” she says, leaving those few words hanging in the air. Dante completes her thought. “Neither of them understand women.” “Yep.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“That tiny pinprick of light could have been a mote of dust on the cupola, a nick or a scratch in one of the laminated layers, and yet that’s us—that’s all we’ve ever known. All our delusions of grandeur, our self-importance, our plans and schemes, they all amount to little more than a faint shade of blue at that distance. We think we’re so great and high and mighty, that we have such a mastery of the elements of the universe, but we’re really quite small, alone and adrift in the empty darkness.” “And that scares you?” he asks. “It terrifies me,” she says. “Oh, I tell myself there’s music, art, all the beauty of nature—birds, trees, flowers—but deep down, having seen how small we really are, it scares me to think it’s not enough. I guess, I want there to be more. Maybe that’s why I’m here—heading out into space again—facing my fears—looking for a solution.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Mission Control told us it would be exhilarating. Most of the crew were awestruck, but I found it mortifying. That one small speck. Ten billion people squabbling over nothing. All the money in the world. All the arrogance and ego. All the wars. All the suffering and loss. For me, it seemed petty when played out on a single spot barely visible through the thick glass.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“From a couple of million miles away, Earth is just a pale blue dot. If you don’t know where to look, it’s just another star.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“What do you want? To be the best?” “No,” she replies. “Better. I don’t know that anyone is ever the best they can be. I just want to be better today than yesterday.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Humans are sensory-driven creatures. In the unnatural environment of space, almost ninety light-years from home, it’s not uncommon to imagine hearing a friendly voice or to see something in the shadows or have memories rush by when a familiar smell drifts through the air. None of that means someone’s going insane. On the contrary, the lack of those responses is of more concern as such detachment is unhealthy.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“Europe and the Americas fell into ruin within a few decades of their launch, with infighting preventing progress. Ignorance replaced knowledge. Ego won out over enlightenment.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars

“That one small speck. Ten billion people squabbling over nothing. All the money in the world. All the arrogance and ego. All the wars. All the suffering and loss. For me, it seemed petty when played out on a single spot barely visible through the thick glass.”
― Peter Cawdron, But The Stars