“Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“You pigs, you. You rut like pigs, is all. You got the most in you, and you use the least. You hear me, you? Got a million in you and spend pennies. Got a genius in you and think crazies. Got a heart in you and feel empties. All a you. Every you...'
[...]
Take a war to make you spend. Take a jam to make you think. Take a challenge to make you great. Rest of the time you sit around lazy, you. Pigs, you! All right, God damn you! I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great. Blow yourselves to Christ gone or come and find me, Gully Foyle, and I make you men. I make you great. I give you the stars.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“The whole point of extravagance is to act like a fool and feel like a fool, but enjoy it.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“no matter how we defend ourselves against the outside we're always licked by something from the inside. There‟s no defense against betrayal, and we all betray ourselves.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“There's got to be more to life than just living," Foyle said to the robot.
"Then find it for yourself, sir. Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts."
"Why can't we all move forward together?"
"Because you're all different. You're not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow."
"Who leads?"
"The men who must...driven men, compelled men."
"Freak men."
"You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory."
"Thank you very much."
"My pleasure, sir."
"You've saved the day."
"Always a lovely day somewhere, sir," the robot beamed. Then it fizzed, jangled, and collapsed.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“There's got to be more to life than just living," Foyle said to the robot.
"Then find it yourself, sir. Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“If you can have everything at fifty that you wanted when you were fifteen, you're happy.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“I've handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Why is life? Don't ask about it. Live it.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Make it a human war,' she said fiercely. 'You're the first not to be deceived by my looks. Oh God! The boredom of the chivalrous knights and their milk-maid passion for the fairy tale princess. But I'm not like that ... inside. I'm not. I'm not. Never. Make it a savage war between us. Don't win me ... destroy me!”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“The damnable frustration of revenge. Revenge is for dreams...never for reality.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for survival.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“You pigs, you. You rut like pigs, is all. You got the most in you, and you use the least. You hear me, you? Got a million in you and spend pennies. Got a genius in you and think crazies. Got a heart in you and feel empties. All a you. Every you...”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“I'm not a robot. I'm a freak of the universe ... a thinking animal ... and I'm trying to see my way clear through this morass.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“We always do what’s natural, only sometimes we shouldn’t do it.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“No," Foyle roared. "Let them hear this. Let them hear everything."
"You're insane, man. You've handed a loaded gun to children."
"Stop treating them like children and they'll stop behaving like children. Who the hell are you to play monitor?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Stop treating them like children. Explain the loaded gun to them. Bring it all out into the open." Foyle laughed savagely. "I've ended the last star-chamber conference in the world. I've blown that last secret wide open. No more secrets from now on.... No more telling the children what's best for them to know.... Let 'em all grow up. It's about time."
"Christ, he is insane."
"Am I? I've handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying. The common man's been whipped and led long enough by driven men like us.... Compulsive men... Tiger men who can't help lashing the world before them. We're all tigers, the three of us, but who the hell are we to make decisions for the world just because we're compulsive? Let the world make its own choice between life and death. Why should we be saddled with the responsibility?"
"We're not saddled," Y'ang-Yeovil said quietly. "We're driven. We're forced to seize responsibility that the average man shirks."
"Then let him stop shirking it. Let him stop tossing his duty and guilt onto the shoulders of the first freak who comes along grabbing at it. Are we to be scapegoats for the world forever?"
"Damn you!" Dagenham raged. "Don't you realize that you can't trust people? They don't know enough for their own good."
"Then let them learn or die. We're all in this together. Let's live together or die together."
"D'you want to die in their ignorance? You've got to figure out how to get those slugs back without blowing everything wide open."
"No. I believe in them. I was one of them before I turned tiger. They can all turn uncommon if they're kicked awake like I was.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“You can tell when a Hollywood historical film was made by looking at the eye makeup of the leading ladies, and you can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“The acid of fury ran through him, eating away the brute patience and sluggishness that had made a cipher of Gully Foyle, precipitating a chain of reactions that would make an infernal machine of Gully Foyle. He was dedicated.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“We don’t punish criminals in our enlightened age, we cure ‘em; and the cure is worse than punishment.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“He swept her off the bench. “Bitch! Never!” He held her, found the soft coral mouth and kissed her; bruised her lips with his, waiting for the final blackout. The concussion never came. “Tricked!” he exclaimed. She laughed. He kissed her again and at last forced himself to release her. She gasped for breath, then laughed again, her coral eyes blazing. “It’s over,” she said. “It hasn’t begun yet.” “What d’you mean?” “The war between us.” “Make it a human war,” she said fiercely. “You’re the first not to be deceived by my looks. Oh God! The boredom of the chivalrous knights and their milk-warm passion for the fairy tale princess. But I’m not like that…inside. I’m not. I’m not. Never. Make it a savage war between us. Don’t win me…destroy me!”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Life is a freak. That’s its hope and glory.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Millions for nonsense, but not one cent for entropy.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“This is Armageddon…Flowering Monstrosity. Tell me what you see.” “There’s”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
“Yes, no matter how we defend ourselves against the outside we’re always licked by something from the inside. There’s no defense against betrayal, and we all betray ourselves.”
― Alfred Bester, quote from The Stars My Destination
Alfred Bester
Born place: in New York, The United States
Born date December 18, 1913
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“I had grown up hearing the word terrorism, but I never really understood what it meant. Until now. Terrorism is different from war-where soldiers face one another in battle. Terrorism is fear all around you. It is going to sleep at night and not knowing what horrors the next day will bring.”
― Malala Yousafzai, quote from I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
“I would have thought you’d pay more attention to your closest competition.”
“I would—if you were competition worth paying attention to.”
― Rachel Morgan, quote from The Faerie Guardian
“When I think of all the pretty and lovely girls who have done their best to attach him, and he tells me that he has offered for an insipid female who has neither fortune nor any extraordinary degree of beauty, besides being stupidly shy and dowdy, I – oh, I could go into strong hysterics!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Sprig Muslin
“The best way to get a handle on the subject would be to ask the experts, but one does not simply walk into a church or synagogue and ask to speak with a demonologist. There are not that many of them; their names are confidential, and they are obliged to report their experiences only to their superiors. Even Ed Warren will not tell all about these horrendous black spirits that come in the night bearing messages and proclamations of blasphemy. When pressed on the matter, in fact, Ed’s reply is: “There are things known to priests and myself that are best left unsaid.” Upon what, then, does Ed Warren base his opinions? Is there proper evidence or corroboration to substantiate his claims? “People who aren’t familiar with the phenomenon sometimes ask me if I’m not involved in a sort of ultrarealistic hallucination, like Don Quixote jousting with windmills. Well, hallucinations are visionary experiences. This, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that hits back. My knowledge of the subject is no different than that of learned clergymen, and they’ll tell you as plainly as I will that this isn’t something to be easily checked off as a bad dream. “I can support everything I say with bona fide evidence,” Ed goes on, “and testimony by credible witnesses and blue-ribbon professionals. There is no conjecture involved here. My statements about the nature of the demonic spirit are based on my own firsthand experiences over thirty years in this work, backed up by the experiences of other recognized demonologists, plus the experiences of the exorcist clergy, plus the testimony of hundreds of witnesses who’ve been these spirits’ victims, plus the full weight of hard physical evidence. Theological dogma about the demonic simply proves consistent with my own findings about these spirits in real life. But let me be more specific. “The inhuman spirit often identifies itself as the devil and then—through physical or psychological means—proves itself to be just that. Again speaking from my own personal experiences, I have been burned by these invisible forces of pandemonium. I have been slashed and cut; these spirits have gouged marks and symbols on my body. I’ve been thrown around the room like a toy. My arms have been twisted up behind me until they’ve ached for a week. I’ve incurred sudden illnesses to knock me out of an investigation. Physicalized monstrosities have manifested before me, threatening death,”
― quote from The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren
“His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.1 Emerson”
― quote from Discover the Power Within You
Cam Girl
Unsouled
Pucked Under
Days of Blood and St...
The Garden of Rama
Lady Windermere's Fa...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.
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