Stories Of Your Life And Others Quotes
"If a bricklayer drops his trowel, he can do no work until a new one is brought up. For months he cannot earn the food that he eats, so he must go into debt."
"The entire city was celebrating. The festival had begun eight days ago, and would last two more."
"We live on the road to heaven; all the work that we do is to extend it further."
"To touch the vault of heaven. To break it open with picks."
"For the first time, he knew night for what it was: the shadow of the earth itself, cast against the sky."
"Perhaps men were not meant to live in such a place. If their own natures restrained them from approaching heaven too closely, then men should remain on the earth."
"Now instead of climbing into the sky, they climbed up to a featureless plain that stretched endlessly in all directions."
"By this construction, Yahweh's work was indicated, and Yahweh's work was concealed."
"I'm merely unaccustomed. We will have months to grow used to the height. By the time we reach the top of the tower, we will wish it were taller."
"The water reached their chests. 'Let us ascend,' shouted Hillalum."
"My mind seethes with expletives from ancient and modern languages, and they taunt me with their crudeness, reminding me that my ideal language would offer terms with sufficient venom to express my present frustration."
"I cannot complete my artificial language; it's too large a project for my present tools."
"What about my fourth ampule? I can't remove it from my thoughts: every frustration I experience at my present plateau reminds me of the possibility for still greater heights."
"I order equipment from a medical supply company, and assemble an apparatus for administering the spinal injection by myself."
"My brain is on fire, my spine burns itself through my back, I feel near apoplexy."
"I understand the mechanism of my own thinking. I know precisely how I know, and my understanding is recursive."
"With this language, I can see how my mind is operating."
"What can I do with this knowledge? Much of what is conventionally described as 'personality' is at my discretion."
"I have somatic awareness of kidney function, nutrient absorption, glandular secretions."
"Blinding, joyous, fearful symmetry surrounds me."
"I seek enlightenment, not spiritual but rational."
"Then there is the primary goal: decoding those patterns."
"My mind is taxing the resources of my brain."
"I comprehend the Word, and the means by which it operates, and so I dissolve."
"Dividing a number by zero doesn't produce an infinitely large number as an answer."
"The only reason you had me was so you could get a maid you wouldn't have to pay."
"Marvel at creatures the likes of which have never been seen on God's green earth."
"I wonder if it's a consequence of their bodies' radial symmetry: their bodies have no 'forward' direction, so maybe their writing doesn't either. Highly neat."
"All things are reflections of God, and all names reflections of the divine name."
"The experience of knowing the future changed a person; it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would."
"The physical universe was a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar."
"Freedom isn't an illusion; it's perfectly real in the context of sequential consciousness."
"People could earn a decent income without being subjected to the conditions of the factory."
"These automata are so far removed from being in a position to reproduce themselves without human participation."
"I see your health amulet failed you, sir," said one man whose table was arrayed with small square tins. "Your remedy lies in the curative powers of magnetism, concentrated in Doctor Sedgewick's Polarising Tablets!"
"Nonsense!" retorted an old woman. "What you need is tincture of mandrake, tried and true!" She held out a vial of clear liquid. "The dog wasn't cold yet when this extract was prepared! There's nothing more potent."
"I make an effort to keep track of such things. Please, tell me what motivated you to develop such automata."
"It is an admirable goal," he said, nodding his approval. "I'm pleased to find that you have such philanthropic motives, because I would ask your assistance in a project I'm directing."
"Upon my honor as a gentleman, sir, I shall not divulge anything you relate to me."
"The science of thermodynamics has not progressed enough to answer that question, I'm afraid. What would constitute a still-higher level of order in the inorganic domain? Automata working cooperatively, perhaps? We do not yet know, but perhaps in time we will."
"Men are no different from your automata; slip a bloke a piece of paper with the proper figures on it, and he'll do your bidding."
"It's always that way, sir. Come on, let's tend to that hand of yours."
"This disaster may ultimately turn out to be a boon."
"Your intended reforms and mine may reinforce each other. Moderating the numbers of the lower classes should make it easier for them to raise their living conditions."
"Beauty has undergone a similar process, thanks to advertisers. Evolution gave us a circuit that responds to good looks— call it the pleasure receptor for our visual cortex— and in our natural environment, it was useful to have. But take a person with one-in-a-million skin and bone structure, add professional makeup and retouching, and you're no longer looking at beauty in its natural form. You've got pharmaceutical-grade beauty, the cocaine of good looks."
"Being in the presence of a world-class beauty can be as thrilling as listening to a world-class soprano. Gifted individuals aren't the only ones who benefit from their gifts; we all do."
"People here have been asking me what it was like going to Saybrook, growing up with calli. To be honest, it's not a big deal when you're young; you know, like they say, whatever you grew up with seems normal to you."
"Educating people, raising their awareness about this issue, all of that is essential, but it's not enough. That's where technology comes in. Think of calliagnosia as a kind of assisted maturity. It lets you do what you know you should: ignore the surface, so you can look deeper."
"Calli doesn't blind you to anything; beauty is what blinds you. Calli lets you see."
"Some people call it excessive, but I call it just enough. Technology is being used to manipulate us through our emotional reactions, so it's only fair that we use it to protect ourselves too."
"Once you're older, you're better equipped to deal with the issue of personal appearance. You're more comfortable in your own skin, more confident, more secure. You're more likely to be satisfied with how you look, whether you're 'good-looking' or not."
"When you love someone, you don't really see what they look like. I don't see Garrett the way others do, because I still have feelings for him."
"For most of its inhabitants, Hell is not that different from Earth; its principal punishment is the regret of not having loved God enough when alive, and for many that's easily endured."
"Calliagnosia is possible because of the existence of certain neural pathways in the brain. All animals have criteria for evaluating the reproductive potential of prospective mates, and they've evolved neural 'circuitry' to recognize those criteria."
"For most of history, the proposition that we drew life from air was so obvious that there was no need to assert it."
"We all keep spare sets of full lungs in our homes, but when one is alone, the act of opening one’s chest and replacing one’s lungs can seem little better than a chore."
"There is camaraderie derived from the awareness that all our air comes from the same source."
"If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players."
"Death is uncommon, fortunately, because we are durable and fatal mishaps are rare."
"Despite these advances, the field of anatomy still had a great unsolved mystery at its core: the question of memory."
"None of us can remember much more than a hundred years in the past, and written records extend only a few hundred years before that."
"How many years did we live before the beginning of written history? Where did we come from?"
"It is the promise of finding the answers within our own brains that makes the inscription hypothesis so seductive."
"We are not really consuming air at all. The amount of air that I draw from each day’s new pair of lungs is exactly as much as seeps out through the joints of my limbs and the seams of my casing, exactly as much as I am adding to the atmosphere around me; all I am doing is converting air at high pressure to air at low."
"The universe began as an enormous breath being held."
"All my desires and ruminations are no more and no less than eddy currents generated by the gradual exhalation of our universe."
"Our universe might have slid into equilibrium emitting nothing more than a quiet hiss."
"Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so."
"I make fire hydrant next craft time. Use cylinder, use cone, use cylinder."
"Eventually you start to understand what a baby means, what it really means, and everything changes."
"For a mind to even approach its full potential, it needs cultivation by other minds."
"It's possible their personalities will evolve at the same rate for as long as the digients are kept running."
"Ana's relationship with Kyle has its ups and downs, but is generally good."
"If you think suspending Zaff will increase your motivation, go ahead."
"The economy goes into a recession after the latest flu pandemic."
"Jax is complaining about the private version of Data Earth."
"Ana is getting ready for bed when she hears the crash."
"We aren't looking for superintelligent employees, we're looking for superintelligent products."
"Experience isn't merely the best teacher, it's the only teacher."