Quotes from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Ninety percent of all problems are caused by people being assholes.”
“What causes the other ten percent?” asked Kizzy.
“Natural disasters,” said Nib.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“All you can do, Rosemary – all any of us can do – is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“The truth is, Rosemary, that you are capable of anything. Good or bad. You always have been, and you always will be. Given the right push, you, too, could do horrible things. That darkness exists within all of us. You think every soldier who picked up a cutter gun was a bad person? No. She was just doing what the soldier next to her was doing, who was doing what the soldier next to her was doing, and so on and so on. And I bet most of them — not all, but most — who made it through the war spent a long time after trying to understand what they’d done. Wondering how they ever could have done it in the first place. Wondering when killing became so comfortable.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“We cannot blame ourselves for the wars our parents start. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is walk away.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“I can wait for the galaxy outside to get a little kinder.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“That’s not the same. What happened to you, to your species, it’s . . . it doesn’t even compare.’ ‘Why? Because it’s worse?’ She nodded. ‘But it still compares. If you have a fractured bone, and I’ve broken every bone in my body, does that make your fracture go away? Does it hurt you any less, knowing that I am in more pain?”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“No sapient could sustain happiness all of the time, just as no one could live permanently within anger, or boredom, or grief.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“The people we remember are the ones who decided how our maps should be drawn. Nobody remembers who built the roads.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“People can do terrible things when they feel safe and powerful.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“She would never, ever understand the idea that a child, especially an infant, was of more value than an adult who had already gained all the skills needed to benefit the community. The death of a new hatchling was so common as to be expected. The death of a child about to feather, yes, that was sad. But a real tragedy was the loss of an adult with friends and lovers and family. The idea that a loss of potential was somehow worse than a loss of achievement and knowledge was something she had never been able to wrap her brain around.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Do not judge other species by your own social norms”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“What do your crazy speciests do?” Kizzy asked.
Sissix shrugged. “Live on gated farms and have private orgies.”
“How is that any different than what the rest of you do?”
“We don’t have gates and anybody can come to our orgies.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Humans’ preoccupation with ‘being happy’ was something he had never been able to figure out. No sapient could sustain happiness all of the time, just as no one could live permanently within anger, or boredom, or grief.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Want and intelligence,’ the historian had written, ‘is a dangerous combination.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“That’s such an incredibly organic bias, the idea that your squishy physical existence is some sort of pinnacle that all programs aspire to.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Tresha. It was the thankful, humble, vulnerable feeling that came after someone saw a truth in you, something they had discovered just by watching, something that you did not admit often to yourself.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“He did not run from his grief, nor did he deny its existence. He could study his grief from a distance, like a scientist observing animals. He embraced it, accepted it, acknowledged that it would never go away. It was as much a part of him as any pleasant feeling. Perhaps even more so.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Perhaps the ache of homesickness was a fair price to pay for having so many good people in her life.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Such a quintessentially Human thing, to express sorrow through apology.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“How else could you explain a sapient species that had overpopulated itself to the point of environmental collapse? This was a people that had coupled themselves stupid.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Behold, my wonderboots! All the kick-ass of an Aeluon assault squad, combined with total ergonomic perfection! It’s podiatric madness! What are they? Are they big tough stompers? Are they comfy kick-arounds? No one knows! There are feats of science happening right over my socks as we speak!”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Acting all sanctimonious while spouting bad info was a terrible way to win a debate, but a great way to piss people off.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Lovers are fun, but kind of stupid, too. They say stupid things to each other and they ignore all their friends because they’re too busy staring, and they get jealous, and they have fights over dumb shit like who did the dishes last or why they can’t fold their fucking socks, and maybe the sex gets bad, or maybe they stop finding each other interesting, and then somebody bangs someone else, and everyone cries, and they see each other years later, and that person you once shared everything with is a total stranger you don’t even want to be around because it’s awkward.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Well, if this band hates the establishment that much, then I doubt they’ll care about me making up my own words. They can’t oppress me with their “correct lyrics.” Fuck the system.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Have you been in Sissix’s room yet?’ ‘No.’ ‘Okay, well, on her wall, there’s this big fancy frame with a mess of Aandrisk feathers hanging from it. Every Aandrisk’s got one, as far as I know. See, if you’re an Aandrisk and somebody really touches your life in some way, you give that person one of your feathers. And then you keep the feathers you get from others as a symbol of how many paths you’ve crossed. Having a lot of feathers on your wall shows that you’ve had an impact on a lot of people. That’s a pretty big life priority for most Aandrisks.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“A rack of mugs rested alongside. There were two hand-drawn labels affixed to the decanters. “Happy Tea!” read one, above a drawing of a wide-eyed, grinning Human with frizzy hair standing on end. “Boring Tea,” read the other. The Human drawn there looked content, but indifferent.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Rosemary thought of what Lovey said if you gave her one task too many: I’m sorry, but that’ll have to wait a moment. If I put anything more in my databanks, my processing streams will stall. And I hate that.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“And there’s nothing better than brothers. Friends are great, but they come and go. Lovers are fun, but kind of stupid, too. They say stupid things to each other and they ignore all their friends because they’re too busy staring, and they get jealous, and they have fights over dumb shit like who did the dishes last or why they can’t fold their fucking socks, and maybe the sex gets bad, or maybe they stop finding each other interesting, and then somebody bangs someone else, and everyone cries, and they see each other years later, and that person you once shared everything with is a total stranger you don’t even want to be around because it’s awkward. But brothers. Brothers never go away. That’s for life. And I know married folks are supposed to be for life, too, but they’re not always. Brothers you can’t get rid of. They get who you are, and what you like, and they don’t care who you sleep with or what mistakes you make, because brothers aren’t mixed up in that part of your life. They see you at your worst, and they don’t care. And even when you fight, it doesn’t matter so much, because they still have to say hi to you on your birthday, and by then, everybody’s forgotten about it, and you have cake together.” She nodded. “So as much as I love my present, and as nice as it is to get a thank you, I don’t need either of ’em. Nothing’s too much to ask when it comes to brothers.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“Scared means we want to live.”
― Becky Chambers, quote from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

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