Quotes from The Android's Dream

John Scalzi ·  396 pages

Rating: (14.7K votes)


“Dirk Moeller didn’t know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“You have to eliminate the low-hanging targets first, on the off chance you were dealing with morons.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Even then, retailers learned early that shoppers prefer their shopping suggestions not be too truthful. One of the great unwritten chapters of retail intelligence programming featured a “personal shopper” program that all-too-accurately modeled the shoppers’ desires and outputted purchase ideas based on what shoppers really wanted as opposed to what they wanted known that they wanted. This resulted in one overcompensatingly masculine test user receiving suggestions for an anal plug and a tribute art book for classic homoerotic artist Tom of Finland, while a female test user in the throes of a nasty divorce received suggestions for a small handgun, a portable bandsaw, and several gallons of an industrial solvent used to reduce organic matter to an easily drainable slurry.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“One of the great unwritten chapters of retail intelligence programming featured a “personal shopper” program that all-too-accurately modeled the shoppers’ desires and outputted purchase ideas based on what shoppers really wanted as opposed to what they wanted known that they wanted. This resulted in one overcompensatingly masculine test user receiving suggestions for an anal plug and a tribute art book for classic homoerotic artist Tom of Finland, while a female test user in the throes of a nasty divorce received suggestions for a small handgun, a portable bandsaw, and several gallons of an industrial solvent used to reduce organic matter to an easily drainable slurry. After history’s first recorded instance of a focus group riot, the personal shopper program was extensively rewritten.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Oh for God's sake how divine can I be? My feet hurt, I have gas and I need to pee.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream



“I have to tell him that the sheep we’re looking for is a woman who runs a pet store,” Creek said. “I think telling him his younger brother’s been resurrected as a computer program might be a little much for one day.”   Archie”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“You’re all so busy tending to your own personal tree that you don’t look around to see that the forest is on fire.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Now if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to play Russian roulette with our planet’s future with the bullet you’ve so thoughtfully provided. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t see you out.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“In politics as in high school, who you are is to a large extent defined by who you sit with at lunch, and there was no doubt about it, the Earth was sitting at the loser table. It was not, Bob Pope thought, the true destiny of the Earth in our universe to be counted among the diplomatic equivalent of the acne-ridden and the furtively masturbating.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Nice is nice,” Hayter-Ross said. “But being a bitch gets results.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream



“You're insane!"

"Call me HAL and make me sing 'Daisy, Daisy'.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Moeller also immediately discounted insults about competence, as the incompetent never question their competence about anything.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Pope was aware there were other ways to get more diplomatic respect than bigger guns, of course. But while other diplomatic maneuvers sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, ultimately a big damn gun always commanded respect.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Well, let’s start with the big one,” Creek said. “You’re your own nation.” Robin considered that for a moment. “For your sake, that had better not be a comment about the size of my ass,” she said.   The”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“If there’s one thing that distinguishes the human species, it is a pathological need to stay connected. The fact your people will interrupt sex to answer your communicators is a scandal across the entire Common Confederation.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream



“Still, I’d like to know how you came up with that line of reasoning.” “You can thank a rabbi,” Javna said. “And a hot dog.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Well, isn’t that just like religion for you, Archie,” he said. “One day it’s a nice way to spend your weekends and the next you’re in the middle of a righteous theological clusterfuck.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Deception, as practically manifested, succeeds because of two things. First, the object of deception is convincingly deceptive in its design; i.e., it looks/feels/acts like the real thing. Second, and equally important, the subject of deception must be predisposed to believing that the object of deception is indeed the real thing. These two criteria work in an inverse relationship with each other; a sufficiently deceptive object can convince a skeptical subject, while a subject who sincerely wants to believe will be able to overlook even gross flaws in the object onto which he or she confers belief.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“But imagine you’re a tapeworm, and then suddenly you’re Goethe. It’s like that.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


“Did you know the guy?” Lopez asked. “Who was he?” “Harry Creek,” Creek said. “I knew him.” “Where is he now?” Lopez asked. “He became a shepherd,” Creek said. Gracie laughed. “You’re not serious,” he said. “Actually, I am,” Creek said. “And is he any good at it?” Gracie asked. “I don’t know,” Creek said, and glanced over at Robin. “You’d have to ask the sheep.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream



“The solution was stupidly simple, which is why no one bothered with it.”
― John Scalzi, quote from The Android's Dream


About the author

John Scalzi
Born place: in The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“But most of all, when Somer closes her eyes, she imagines the moment she will hold her baby for the first time. She keeps Asha’s photo in her pocket and looks at it often. That one photo vaporized her doubts and made everything come to life. She lay awake at night, picturing her daughter’s sweet face.”
― Shilpi Somaya Gowda, quote from Secret Daughter


“All right." Shimmering droplets on her eyelashes, stars caught in transition. "But will you replace it with something for me?"

"Anything." His body was hers.

Brushing her fingers over his lips, she said, "You gave me an eagle. I want to give you one, too." A tender kiss pressed to the scar. "I want us to fly together.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Heart of Obsidian


“The Yaksha asked, 'Who is the friend of the exile? Who is the friend of the householder? Who is the friend of him that ails? And who is the friend of one about to die?' Yudhishthira answered, 'The friend of the exile in a distant land is his companion, the friend of the householder is the wife; the friend of him that ails is the physician: and the friend of him about to die is charity”
― C. Rajagopalachari, quote from Mahabharata


“A day came when I should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So I have stayed as I am, without regret, separated from the normal human condition.”
― quote from The Forgotten Soldier


“Isana felt her throat tighten.
"We failed." Serai lifted her chin and patted Isana's arm firmly.
"We have not yet succeeded. There is a difference.”
― Jim Butcher, quote from Academ's Fury


Interesting books

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
(41.5K)
Packing for Mars: Th...
by Mary Roach
La Divina Comedia
(93.8K)
La Divina Comedia
by Dante Alighieri
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
(5.3K)
The Inner Game of Te...
by W. Timothy Gallwey
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
(5.3K)
Peak: Secrets from t...
by K. Anders Ericsson
Seven Sons of Zion
(69)
Seven Sons of Zion
by Lucian Bane
1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England
(2.3K)

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.