Quotes from Stand on Zanzibar

“It's supposed to be automatic, but actually you have to push this button. ”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“True, you’re not a slave. You’re worse off than that by a long, long way. You’re a predatory beast shut up in a cage of which the bars aren’t fixed, solid objects you can gnaw at or in despair batter against with your head until you get punch-drunk and stop worrying. No, those bars are the competing members of your own species, at least as cunning as you on average, forever shifting around so you can’t pin them down, liable to get in your way without the least warning, disorienting your personal environment until you want to grab a gun or an axe and turn mucker.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“You don’t bother to memorise the literature—you learn to read and keep a shelf of books.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“Putain mais quelle fichue imagination je peux avoir ...”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“It's natural for a man to defend what's dear to him: his own life, his home, his family. But in order to make him fight on behalf of his rulers, the rich and powerful who are too cunning to fight their own battles-in short to defend not himself but people whom he's never met and moreover would not care to be in the same room with him-you have to condition him into loving violence not for the benefits it bestows on him but for its own sake. Result: the society has to defend itself from its defenders, because what's admirable in wartime is termed psychopathic in peace. It's easier to wreck a man than to repair him. Ask any psychotherapist. And take a look at the crime figures among veterans.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“Take stock, citizen bacillus,
Now that there are so many billions of you,
Bleeding through your opened veins,
Into your bathtub, or into the Pacific
Of that by which they may remember you.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“You know Chad’s definition of the New Poor? People who are too far behind with time-payments on next year’s model to make the down-payment on the one for the year after?”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“Stand on Zanzibar is an information overload on topics that sensible people would never want to learn about.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“Much earlier than Richardson, before World War I, in fact, Norman Angell had shown that the idea of fighting a war for profit was obsolete. The victors would pay a heavier cost than the losers. He was right, and that First World War proved the fact. The second one hammered it home with everything up to and including nuclear weapons. In an individual one would regard it as evidence of insanity to see someone repeatedly undertaking enterprises that resulted in his losing precisely what he claimed he was trying to achieve; it is not less lunatic to do it on the international scale, but if you’ve been catching the news lately you’ll have noticed it’s being done more than ever.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

“COINCIDENCE You weren't playing attention to the other half of what was going on.”
― John Brunner, quote from Stand on Zanzibar

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Popular quotes

“Just then Dante leaned against him, brow between his shoulder blades for a moment, so tentatively Griff held his breath. His voice was almost sheepish. “Nah. Everyone knows I was born defective. They didn’t instal you until later.”
― Damon Suede, quote from Hot Head

“Although the Singularity has many faces, its most important implication is this: our technology will match and then vastly exceed the refinement and suppleness of what we regard as the best of human traits.”
― Ray Kurzweil, quote from The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

“We both look up as Katherine, Connor, and Dad enter the kitchen. Kiernan tries to be polite and stand, but I’m on the outside of the bench, and the table has him wedged in, so the most he can manage is a half crouch, which looks terribly uncomfortable.
I grab the back of his shirt and tug him back down to the bench. “Dad, Connor, this is Kiernan. Katherine, you’ve already met.”
“He’s changed quite a bit in the past thirteen years, however,” she says. “And I suspect that I’ve changed even more in the past five decades.”
Kiernan returns her smile. “It’s good to see you again.”
Dad steps forward and shakes Kiernan’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“My privilege, Mr. Keller.”
“It’s Harry, please. You saved my daughter’s life, so I think we can dispense with the formalities.”
I’ve rarely seen Kiernan blush, but he does now, and then he nods. “Harry, then. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Connor follows Dad’s lead and steps forward to take Kiernan’s hand. “I’m Connor Dunne. And you can call me Mr. Dunne.”
There’s a slight twinkle in Connor’s eye, so I think he’s joking. But whether he meant it that way or not, Kiernan laughs.
“The hell I will, sonny boy. You need to show your elders the proper respect, or I’ll take you behind the barn and give you a good strapping.”
Connor snorts. “No barn, and I’d love to see you try.”
― Rysa Walker, quote from Time's Edge

“Kiernan, the less you know, the better. You’re always telling me to just trust you and do what you’re asking, and I do—”
He snorts. “When it suits you.”
“Okay, but I do when it seems important. And this is really, really important.”
― Rysa Walker, quote from Time's Divide

“I just took the box and nodded, because that's how you treat crazy people. You nod and count down twenty-seven days for crazy to come to an end.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

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