Generation of Vipers Quotes

“No one should care about appearances and yet everyone does. It’s subliminal. Clothing may be a facade, but people read body language for intent. They read posture, temperament and styling as a measure of character. By themselves, these things are meaningless and yet they amplify the message being delivered by the candidates.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Guesses are for sports commentators, not scientists.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“emotions aren’t the enemy of logic, they’re the complement.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Be willing to learn, not confirm.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Arguments aren’t won by logic. People are convinced by emotion,”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“How about a bit of jousting? It’s Saint Angry Andy Anderson against that fucking dragon!”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Looks don’t matter but you want a Hollywood Dionysus to play you?”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“You blink and it’s gone,”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“against her ear. Her muscles feel like jelly but she pushes on. “I have not been smoking. Not in my room. Not in the hall. Not in my bathroom. Not by the door. Not in the cupboard. Not on the floor. I don’t smoke here. I don’t smoke there. I don’t smoke anywhere, Sam-I-am!”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Kath taps the stone, reiterating her earlier point. “This is a mass grave.” Ah, Drunk Kath is so cheerful.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“The point is—we’re not a good metric for this stuff. We’re lousy. We’re big old soft bags of mush with tent poles keeping us propped up!”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Hell, most of these assholes wouldn’t know thermite from a turd floating in the toilet.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“They’re tools. He doesn’t understand the obsession. Guns make sense for soldiers, police officers and security guards. Oh, he’s heard the arguments about self-defense. He’s also heard the shocking statistics about how often there are accidental shootings, suicides and murders from domestic violence. To his mind, these are heartbreaking. Jorge’s a simple man. He doesn’t care for complexities. He doesn’t mind if people call him naive, he’d rather live in a world without guns. Sure, criminals could still get them, but even that would become rare. As for freedoms, he has all the freedom he needs.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“My point being—humans are really good at hubris. Just because we planted a flag on the Moon, we think we’re masters of the universe. We’re just getting started. Even with all we’ve learned, there’s more we don’t know than we do. To ignore the threat posed by An̆duru or to assume nature can’t accomplish panspermia is not just foolish. It’s arrogant. It’s unbridled  conceit.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“We’ve all seen too many goddamn awful alien invasion movies. We’ve imagined UFOs blazing across the sky, firing their lasers.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“I think you’re human,” Monroe says. “You panicked. You overreacted. You made a mistake. It’s typical, really. It’s the story of our exploration writ large. Humans stumble across something new—and kill it!”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“No, you didn’t think, did you? You reacted. You panicked! And we lost the opportunity to learn something about an extraterrestrial species that can traverse the goddamn stars!”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“That they’ve already lost clean water, lost their clean air, lost two dozen species to logging, lost the coastline to oil rigs and refineries—all of that is irrelevant. It’s my God-given constitutional right to drive a V8 pickup—”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Arguments aren’t won by logic. People are convinced by emotion, not reason.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Court marshaled?” Winters says, laughing. “You think we’re getting out of here alive?” She walks on past him, adding, “Oh, you’re adorable.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Hoo-rah,” the Rangers yell in response.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Don’t fall for it, my friends. Lies are like magnets, drawing us in. If you don’t resist, you will get dragged in. If you’re passive, you will lose. If you’re not careful, you will be fooled. Oh, but I’m too smart. Really? There’s nothing that blinds us more than our own ego. There’s no drug, no shot of whiskey, no line of cocaine with more of a hit than our own pride.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“I don’t care what you believe about aliens, viruses, vaccines or election results. I care about why you went down that dead-end road. Why did you jump at that like a dog chasing a tennis ball? Why can’t you see it for what it is? A distraction. A diversion. It’s something to keep you panting while avoiding any real depth. The tendency to react—to go with our instinct—is flawed. And it gets exploited by assholes all the time.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Standing against institutions is like wading into a stream. It takes effort just to stand still, let alone walk on.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Freedoms are an opportunity, not an excuse.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“I know. I get it. I understand. It’s natural to defend your position, but that doesn’t make your position right. Listen. Just listen. Maybe, just maybe—perhaps, there’s some merit to what scientists are telling us. Don’t fight reality. Take a deep breath and listen.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“Time is an illusion. It only ever ticks by with the consistency of a metronome and yet weeks and months rush past as though in fast forward.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“His solution is simple—read.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“He realized neither Germany nor Japan could compete with America’s industrial might.”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers

“War is about taking opportunities, not chances,”
― Peter Cawdron, Generation of Vipers