Parasite

Sometimes humanity is the reason we can't have nice things.

Isn't that the justification used by every scientist who made something wonderful, only to discover that they've made something terrible? 'We did it for Science.

I’m not insane, I’m neurologically variant,” she snapped back. “Sticks and stones, asshole.

All scientists are mad scientists.

No one wants to set out to be a hero, and discover that they've been a villain all along.

Why are there so many words that sound exactly the same, only one of them is right and one of them is wrong, and if you use the wrong one everyone looks at you like you're stupid and then you need to stab somebody to make the point that there are a lot of different types of intelligence and anyway English is hard.

The broken doors are open—come and enter and be home. My darling girl, be careful now, and don’t go out alone.

Nature doesn’t have to make sense. Nature just does.

Both my parents were Irish, and the Irish word for “suntan” is “burn.

The line between “police force” and “army” is narrow under the best of circumstances.

Besides, killing all the humans will totally trash the cable schedule, and there are some shows I'm really excited to have back on the air.

Fooling laymen with science is sometimes so easy it should be criminal.

Never ‘it,’ never ‘it,’ ” Marya chided. “None of God’s creatures is an ‘it,’ even if they’re not a boy or a girl or a mammal or a pretty bird. Call them ‘he’ or she’ and be a little wrong, but never take away their individuality like that.

The dog—Beverly—looked up at me with warm, trusting brown eyes. I was a human. I had her leash, and I knew her name. Clearly, I was going to make everything okay. It must be nice to be a dog.

I just want to know what I’m going to be freaking out about before I waste energy freaking out about the wrong things. Conservation of panic is important.

The world is out of order. It’s been broken since you came.

Once a door is open, you have to live with what’s on the other side.

Because hubris is not only a sin, it's a fun game to play at parties

The sky was a flawless blue, the color of surgical gloves.

They found what was waiting on the other side: a pleasant room with a horrible monster in it. Apparently, when they were younger, they had the same monster in their closet, and when their parents chased it away, the monster pined until it could finally call to them to come through the broken doors to the Land of the Monsters, where they could be a family forever. The book ended with the implication that now the children would become monsters, too, and would eventually leave the Land of Monsters to find closets, and children, of their own.

Money talks, and people like science that seems just a little bit insane. It reminds them that the future is tomorrow, and that we have a chance to shape it.

Science doesn’t always play nicely with the other children.

All scientists are mad scientists. It's just a question of how long you can keep yourself from starting to look thoughtfully at the nearest thunderstorm.

For almost a minute the two of us were locked in a battle of wills that had no possible winner, only a different order of losing.

Don't feel sorry for me, now. It was for science, and as long as something is for science, it's worth doing. It's just not necessarily worth repeating.

I guess when you’re one of the richest people on the planet, you can buy yourself a window that never shows you anything ugly.

[R]equests” from the corporation were never really requests. They were commandments wearing their best Sunday clothes.

Isn't reduced brain damage a good thing?' asked Nathan. 'Oh, totally--I wish I had reduced brain damage, or at least, I wish bananas didn't taste like tangerines all the damn time--but this isn't the good kind of reduced brain damage.

Sal, I know it’s tempting, but please don’t kill her,” said Nathan. “I don’t want to lose my security deposit on your first night here.” “How long were you expecting it to take?” I asked. “It would be nice if we could hold out for at least a week without any major stains or structural damage.” “I’ll keep that in mind.

Biology is tricky, Sal,” said Dr. Cale. “A lot of the rules are more like suggestions, or can be, if you come at them from the right angle, but you still want to break as few of them as possible. Break too many, and the chances that everything will go catastrophically wrong increase at an exponential rate.