Quotes from The Atlantis Gene

“Here’s a tip. The good guys ask you to get in the truck. The bad guys put a black bag over your head and throw you in the truck. I’m asking.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Science lacks something very important that religion provides: a moral code. Survival of the fittest is a scientific fact, but it is a cruel ethic; the way of beasts, not a civilized society. Laws can only take us so far, and they must be based upon something—a shared moral code that rises from something. As that moral foundation recedes, so will society’s values.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“When you figure out that you're fighting some other man's war, walk away.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“We attack whatever is different, anything we don’t understand, anything that might change our world, our environment, reduce our chances of survival. Racism, class warfare, sexism, east versus west, north and south, capitalism and communism, democracy and dictatorships, Islam and Christianity, Israel and Palestine, they’re all different faces of the same war: the war for a homogeneous human race, an end to our differences.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“It’s always the same war. Only the names of the dead change. It’s always about one thing: which group of rich men get to divvy up the spoils. They call it ‘The Great War’—clever marketing.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Great leaders are forged from the fire of hard decisions,”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“And when he was, when he finally found love after a life without, he died, happy. And the woman, all she ever wanted was to know that she could change the world, and if she could change the heart of the darkest man, then there was hope for the entire human race.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Ma’am, your husband was killed in an unfortunate Cadbury Creme Egg incident.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Life is hard—for everyone—but it’s hell on earth if you’re foolish or weak.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“We so often seek what we’re deprived of in childhood. Sheltered children become reckless. Starving children become ambitious.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Survival of the fittest is a scientific fact, but it is a cruel ethic; the way of beasts, not a civilized society. Laws can only take us so far, and they must be based upon something—a shared moral code that rises from something. As that moral foundation recedes, so will society’s values.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Religion is our desperate attempt to understand our world. And our past. We live in darkness, surrounded by mysteries. Where did we come from? What is our purpose? What will happen to us after we die? Religion also gives us something more: a code of conduct, a blueprint of right and wrong, a guide to human decency. Just like any other tool, it can be misused.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“She craves genuine things, real people. We so often seek what we’re deprived of in childhood.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“The human race is the biggest mass murderer of all time. Think about it: we’re hard-coded to survive. Even our ancient ancestors were driven by this impulse, driven enough to recognize the Neanderthals and Hobbits as dangerous enemies. They may have slaughtered dozens of human subspecies. And that legacy shamefully lives on. We attack whatever is different, anything we don’t understand, anything that might change our world, our environment, reduce our chances of survival. Racism, class warfare, sexism, east versus west, north and south, capitalism and communism, democracy and dictatorships, Islam and Christianity, Israel and Palestine, they’re all different faces of the same war: the war for a homogeneous human race, an end to our differences. It’s a war we started a long time ago, a war we’ve been fighting ever since. A war that operates in every human mind below the subconscious level, like a computer program, constantly running in the background, guiding us to some eventuality.” Kate didn’t know what to say, couldn’t see how it could involve her trial and her children. “You expect me to believe those two children are involved in an ancient cosmic struggle for the human race?”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“A war that operates in every human mind below the subconscious level, like a computer program, constantly running in the background, guiding us to some eventuality.” Kate”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Passion, rage—no matter how much we evolve, man can’t escape these instincts: our heritage as beasts. We can only hope to control the beast inside us.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“As a beast, he had lived in a world of bliss, acting on his instincts, thinking only when he had to, never seeing himself for what he was, never worrying about his mortality, never trying to cheat death. But now his thoughts and fears ruled him. He knew evil for the first time.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“The piano keys represent the genome. We each get different keys, and the keys don’t change throughout our life: we die with the same piano keys, or genome, we’re born with. What changes is the sheet music: the epigenetics. That sheet of music determines what tune is played—what genes are expressed—and those genes determine our traits—everything from IQ to hair color.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“enough vodka to kill a Russian army.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“The human race is the biggest mass murderer of all time.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“The attacks did two things really well: ensured there was a war, a big one—and crashed the stock market.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“I don’t think a person has to be religious to be moral.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“Passion, rage—no matter how much we evolve, man can’t escape these instincts: our heritage as beasts.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“The West Virginia Children’s Home. It’s in Elkins. See that they get the balance of the account. And that they know that it came from my father.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“This is what you’ve been reading? World War One–era Gone With the Wind?”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

“every human alive today is directly descended from a man who lived in Africa sixty thousand years ago.”
― A.G. Riddle, quote from The Atlantis Gene

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Popular quotes

“Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, “God, Your law is not good. My judgement is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do.”
― R.C. Sproul, quote from The Holiness of God

“he had to do was risk his life to keep her safe from the most vicious assassin order in Europe? And he got to kiss her, at his pleasure? He definitely had struck the better bargain.”
― Kresley Cole, quote from If You Dare

“[...] ma a Roma un uomo onesto era un uomo raro: cioè un cretino.”
― Robert Harris, quote from Pompeii

“В быстролётные годы расцвета женской красоты она отлично служит притворству, к которому вынуждает женщину её природная слабость и законы нашего общества. Чудесный, свежий цвет лица, блеск глаз, изящный рисунок тонких черт, богатство линий, резких или округлых, но чистых и совершенно законченных, — завеса для всех её сокровенных волнений; если она покраснеет, это не выдаст движения её души, а только оживит и без того яркие краски; огонь её глаз, горящих жизнью, в ту пору скрадывает все внутренние вспышки, и пламя страданий, вырываясь на миг, делает её ещё пленительнее. Итак, нет ничего более непроницаемого, чем молодое лицо, ибо нет ничего неподвижнее. Лицо молодой женщины безмятежно, гладко, ясно, как поверхность дремлющего озера. Своеобразие начинает появляться в женском лице лишь к тридцати годам. До этого возраста художнику не найти в нём ничего, кроме бело-розовых красок, улыбок и выражения, которое повторяет одну и ту же мысль, — мысль о радостях молодости и любви, мысль однообразную и неглубокую; но в старости, когда женщина всё уже испытала, следы страстей словно врезаются в лицо её; она была любовницей, супругой, матерью; самые сильные проявления счастья и горя в конце концов меняют облик человека, искажают черты, бороздя лицо неисчислимыми морщинами, наделяя каждую из них своим языком; и женщина становится тогда величественной в своём страдании, прекрасной в печали своей, великолепной в своей невозмутимости, и если нам позволено будет развить наше необычайное сравнение, то в высохшем озере станут тогда видны следы всех родников, питавших его; тогда лицо женщины уже не привлечёт внимания света, ибо в легкомыслии своём свет будет напуган тем, что разрушены его привычные понятия о красоте; не привлечёт оно и посредственного, ничего не смыслящего художника, зато вдохновит истинного поэта, того, кто наделён чувством прекрасного, кто свободен от всех условностей, на которых зиждется столько ложных понятий об искусстве и красоте.
Люди несчастные, привыкшие взывать к небу с мольбой об утешении в горестях жизни, сразу бы распознали по взгляду этой женщины, что и для неё молитва является единственным прибежищем в повседневных страданиях и что у неё ещё кровоточат те тайные раны, от которых гибнут все цветы души, вплоть до материнских чувств. У живописца есть краски для таких портретов, но никакими словами не передать их; сущность лица, его выражение — само по себе явление необъяснимое, и лишь зрение помогает нам уловить его; у писателя есть только один способ дать представление о страшных переменах, происшедших во внешности его героев: он должен рассказать о тех событиях, из-за которых они появились. Всё в этой женщине говорило о бесшумной ледяной грозе, о тайной борьбе между героизмом страдающей матери и убожеством наших чувств, недолговечных, как и мы сами, в которых нет ничего вечного.
Люди хорошо воспитанные, и особенно женщины, скрытны в проявлении своих чувств, и о волнении их сердца догадается лишь тот, кому довелось испытать в жизни всё, что испытывала исстрадавшаяся мать.”
― Honoré de Balzac, quote from A Woman Of Thirty

“forgiveness is selfish. We give it not because it’s earned, but because it’s what we need. To find peace. To be whole.”
― Emma Chase, quote from Twisted

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