Max Brooks · 342 pages
Rating: (360.2K votes)
“Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they're used.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“The only rule that ever made sense to me I learned from a history, not an economics, professor at Wharton. "Fear," he used to say, "fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe." That blew me away. "Turn on the TV," he'd say. "What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products." Fuckin' A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“There's a word for that kind of lie. Hope.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“I don't know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Imagine what could be accomplished if only the human race would shed its humanity.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Sometimes you find your path, sometimes it finds you.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“[...]you don’t have to be Sun freakin Tzu to know that real fighting isn’t about killing or even hurting the other guy, it’s about scaring him enough to call it a day.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“When I believe in my ability to do something, there is no such word as no.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“You can't blame anyone else, ... , no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Whatever bro, tell it to the whales”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“They didn't break me. I broke myself.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“To know is always better, no matter what the answer might be.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“This is the only time for high ideals because those ideals are all that we have. We aren't just fighting for our physical survival, but for the survival of our civilization. We don't have the luxury of old-world pillars. We don't have a common heritage, we don't have a millennia of history. All we have are the dreams and promises that bind us together. All we have...is what we want to be.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“They say great times make great men. I don't buy it. I saw a lot of weakness, a lot of filth. People who should have risen to the challenge and either couldn't or wouldn't. Greed, fear, stupidity and hate. I saw it before the war, I see it today. [...] I don't know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“If your Soviet neighbor is trying to set fire to your house, you can't be worrying about the Arab down the block. If suddenly it's the Arab in your backyard , you can't be worrying about the People's Republic of China and if one day the ChiComs show up at your front door with an eviction notice in one hand and a Molotov cocktail in the other, then the last thing you're going do is look over his shoulder for a walking corpse.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Americans worship technology. It's an inherent trait in the national zeitgeist.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“We relinquished our freedom that day, and we were more than happy to see it go. From that moment on we lived in true freedom, the freedom to point to someone else and say “They told me to do it! It’s their fault, not mine.” The freedom, God help us, to say “I was only following orders.”-World War Z”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“There comes a point when you have to realize that the sum of all your blood, sweat, and tears will ultimately amount to zero.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Looking back, I still can't believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of 'experts' all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more 'shocking' and 'in-depth' than the last one. It was all so confusing, nobody seemed to know what to do.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“. . . show the other side, the one that gets people out of bed the next morning, makes them scratch and scrape and fight for their lives because someone is telling them that they're going to be okay.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“There comes a point where emotions must give way to objective facts.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“America is especially sensitive to war weariness, and nothing brings backlash like the perception of defeat. I say “perception” because America is a very all-or-nothing society… We like to know, and for everyone else to know, that our victory wasn’t uncontested, it was positively devastating.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Can you ever "solve" poverty? Can you ever "solve" crime? Can you ever "solve" disease, unemployment, war, or any other societal herpes? Hell no.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Can you ever "solve" disease, unemployment, war, or any other societal herpes? Hell no. All you can hope for is to make them manageable enough to allow people to get on with their lives. That's not cynicism, that's maturity.”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“The official report was a collection of cold, hard data, an objective "after-action report" that would allow future generations to study the events of that apocalyptic decade without being influenced by the "human factor." But isn't the human factor what connects us so deeply to our past? Will future generations care as much for chronologies and casualty statistics as they would for the personal accounts of individuals not so different from themeslves? By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it?”
― Max Brooks, quote from World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks
Born place: in New York City, The United States
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“This armchair strategist never possessed the qualities for true generalship, because he ignored practical problems.”
― Antony Beevor, quote from Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943
“Anoshe was a word for strangers in the street, and lovers between meetings, for parents and children, friends and family. It softened the blow of leaving. Eased the strain of parting. A careful nod to the certainty of today, the mystery of tomorrow. When a friend left, with little chance of seeing home, they said anoshe. When a loved one was dying, they said anoshe. When corpses were burned, bodies given back to the earth and souls to the stream, those left grieving said anoshe.
Anoshe brought solace. And hope. And the strength to let go.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from A Conjuring of Light
“But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker.”
― Timothy Ferriss, quote from The 4-Hour Workweek
“And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet I would remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Farthest Shore
“They drain you sometimes. They really do.
"What's it all about then mate? What's the secret of life? You should know. You're a fucking cab driver."
Yeah, right. (As if I'll learn the secret of life talking to arseholes like you all night).
"Got any saucepan lids, mate? I've got two. I hate them. Bastards, they are. Ruined my life. I hate the bastards."
I keep quiet
"Don't try and rip us off, mate. I've got a key between my knuckles."
(Whatever).
The life of a cab driver. Glimpses into other people's lives.”
― Karl Wiggins, quote from Grit: The Banter and Brutality of the Late-Night Cab
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