Quotes from This Alien Shore

C.S. Friedman ·  564 pages

Rating: (3.1K votes)


“The more complex our security becomes, the more complex our enemy’s efforts must be.

The more we seek to shut him out, the better he must learn to become at breaking in.

Each new level of security that we manage becomes no more than a stepping-stone for him who would surpass us, for he bases his next assault upon our best defenses.

It is a ware that can never truly be won… but one we dare not lose.”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from This Alien Shore


“All data leaves a trail. The search for data leaves a trail. The erasure of data leaves a trail. The absence of data, under the right circumstances, can leave the clearest trail of all.”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from This Alien Shore


“In a world where data is coin of the realm, and transmissions are guarded by no better sentinels than man-made codes and corruptible devices, there is no such thing as a secret.”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from This Alien Shore


“It struck Hsing suddenly that Masada didn't even understand the nature of his own genius. To him the patterns of thought and motive that he sensed in the virus were self-explanatory, and those who could not see them were simply not looking hard enough. Yet he would readily admit to his own inability to analyze more human contact, even on the most basic level. That was part and parcel of being iru.

What a strange combination of skills and flaws. What an utterly alien profile. Praise the founders of Guera for having taught them all to nurture such specialized talent, rather than seeking to "cure" it. It was little wonder that most innovations in technology now came from the Gueran colonies, and that Earth, who set such a strict standard of psychological "normalcy," now produced little that was truly exciting. Thank God their own ancestors had left that doomed planet before they, too, had lost the genes of wild genius. Thank God they had seen the creative holocaust coming, and escaped it.”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from This Alien Shore


“Connecting to the outernet was less of a shock this time, as the monitor gave him a sense of distance from it, but it was still annoying. How did these people live with such a system, stalked by advertisements and "free" offers and icons that would take you to another site, unasked-for, the moment you gave them your attention? It was like wending your way through an obstacle course. Perhaps after a while you just learned to tune it all out... or perhaps you could buy programs that did it for you. He would have to design himself one of those before he did any more real work on the outernet, though he suspected that the consumer programs which were stalking him were capable of adapting to anything he could turn out quickly.

Advertising: the ultimate predator.

He longed for the simplicity of the Gueran network, which simply did what it was supposed to and no more. When had these people lost touch with the fact that the purpose of a network was to facilitate communication, not impede it?”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from This Alien Shore



About the author

C.S. Friedman
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“And like most of her peers, Barbara Ann has a French postal worker's sense of divine entitlement when it comes to her hours.”
― Rob Reid, quote from Year Zero


“hear that same thing from the psychic, it’d make her feel much better. “I see a man in your future…” the psychic began in a raspy voice. His—her—Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as she closed her eyes and laid her palms on the cards. Sabrina blinked and tried hard to focus on what she was saying and not on the hair of Madame’s knuckles.”
― Jennifer Shirk, quote from Fiance by Fate


“I met his eyes. “Easily. I could love you easily.”
― Laura Thalassa, quote from The Vanishing Girl


“Oh, God!” said one student. The Devil’s head snapped up.  “Where?” “I”
― quote from What Would Satan Do?


“My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Diaries of Franz Kafka


Interesting books

How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays
(4.3K)
How to Travel with a...
by Umberto Eco
Claiming the Highlander
(5.2K)
Claiming the Highlan...
by Kinley MacGregor
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
(35.1K)
Boomerang: Travels i...
by Michael Lewis
Peter the Great: His Life and World
(10.2K)
Peter the Great: His...
by Robert K. Massie
Beauty from Love
(15K)
Beauty from Love
by Georgia Cates
Grasshopper Jungle
(14.6K)
Grasshopper Jungle
by Andrew Smith

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.