Douglas Preston · 629 pages
Rating: (34.3K votes)
“The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid.”
“One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.”
“I’m afraid I don’t suffer petty bureaucrats gladly. A very bad habit, but one I find hard to break. Nevertheless, you will find, Dr. Kelly, that humiliation and blackmail, when used judiciously, can be marvelously effective”
“PEE-WEE BOXER SURVEYED THE JOBSITE WITH DISGUST. THE FOREMAN was a scumbag. The crew were a bunch of losers. Worst of all, the guy handling the Cat didn't know jack about hydraulic excavators. Maybe it was a union thing; maybe he was friends with somebody; either way, he was jerking the machine around like it was his first day at Queens Vo-Tech”
“Boxer altered his course subtly, as if that was the way he'd already been going, not looking up to acknowledge he had heard, letting his attitude convey the contempt he felt for the scrawny foreman. He stopped in front of the guy, staring at the man's dusty little workboots. Small feet, small dick. Slowly, he glanced up. "Welcome to the world, Pee-Wee. Take a look at this.”
“If you’re honest with yourself, you can still feel the terrible weight of time pressing on you; that awful, relentless, bodily corruption that is happening constantly to us all.”
“There is an old French curse: may your fondest wish come true. If this treatment is cheap and available to everyone, it will destroy the earth through overpopulation. If it is dear and available only to the very rich, it will cause riots, wars, a breakdown of the social contract. Either way, it will lead directly to human misery. What is the value of a long life, when it is lived in squalor and unhappiness?”
“I'm praying for you, Mary. I want you to live forever.”
“Dieses herzlose Lied des Sturmes spottet Gott und dem Licht — es kündet von schwarzem Winter und dunklem Eis.”
“Each dog marks a section of our lives, and in the end, we feed them to the dark, burying them there while we carry on.”
“Life is not flawless, no matter how close one may obtain excellence. All we can truly promise each other is to love and honor and respect and communicate.”
“You don't need the makeup."
Sabrina felt like her face is on fire. He knew about her late-night beauty sessions. And, if she had heard him correctly, he was also admitting that he thought she was pretty. She looks over at him and found he was looking at her.
"I kind of wish I hadn't said that," he said.
"Me, too," she replied.
"Would it help if I said you were stinky, muck-covered toad-face?"
Sabrina nodded and edged as far away as she could on the trampoline. Puck did the same.”
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