Daniel H. Wilson

“A soul isn't given for free. The races of men fight each other to the death for the honor of being recognized as human beings, with souls.”

“People need meaning as much as they need air. Lucky for us, we can give meaning to each other for free. Just by being alive.”

“Science fiction inspires scientists, but it doesn't exist to dictate what our future should look like. Great science fiction is fun to read and it makes you think, period. Claiming anything more than that is dicey. Grand visions of the future were more prevalent in the golden-age science fiction, but all fiction is a reflection of the current times. As science moves more quickly, the horizon of science fiction tends to recede closer to the present.”

“To survive, humans will work together. Accept each other. For a moment, we are all equal. Backs against the wall, human beings are at their finest.”

“Each of the humans chests are always rising and falling; and they sway minutely in place as they perform a constant balancing act to stay bipedal.”

“Humans are inscrutable. Infinitely unpredictable. This is what makes them dangerous.”

“I don't think. I react. My action is divorced from all emotion and logic. It isn't human or inhuman-it just is. I believe that choices like these, made in absolute crisis, come from our True Selves, bypassing all experience and thought. These kinds of choices are the closest thing to fate that human beings will ever experience.”

“Lucky for us, we can give meaning to each other for free. Just by being alive.”

“Having these boys around town in feral packs is like leaving dynamite out in the sun-something mighty useful and powerful turned into an accident waiting to happen.”

“The road ain't even marked. Home don't have to be.”

“The buttons I usually push don't need my force, only my intention. Buttons are supposed to be servants, waiting to deliver your commands to the machine. Instead, this loud, dumb piece of steel I'm driving demands that I pay strict attention to every turn of the road, keep my hands and feet ready at all times. The car takes no responsibility for the job of driving. It leaves me in total control.I hate it. I don't want control. I just want to get there”

“She is staring into hell and I'm not brave enough to join her.”

“Because you are designed to want something that will hurt you. And you cannot help it...cannot stop wanting it. It is in your design. And when you finally find it, this thing will burn you up. This thing will destroy you.”

“Across the sea of space lies an infinite emptiness. I can feel it, suffocating me. It is without meaning. But each life creates its own reality.”

“Lies come as natural as the babbling of a creek.”

“I know a lot of things, Mathilda. I have gazed through space telescopes into the heart of the galaxy. I have seen a dawn of four hundred billion suns. It all means nothing without life. You and I are special, Mathilda. We are alive.”

“You humans are biological machines designed to create ever more intelligent tools. You have reached the pinnacle of your species. All your ancestors’ lives, the rise and fall of your nations, every pink and squirming baby—they have all led you here, to this moment, where you have fulfilled the destiny of humankind and created your successor. You have expired. You have accomplished what you were designed to do.”

“Through your actions here today—you have made humankind obsolete.”

“I've heard it said that technology makes a good person better, and it makes a bad person worse. That's okay with me. I say we keep building new versions of ourselves, keep exploring the unknown, and keep growing. We're gonna be fine. Different, but fine.”

“It’ll turn me into a weapon,’ I say, my voice suddenly loud. ‘All you got to do is curl your hands into fists and you turn into a weapon,’ says Jim. ‘Your body is just another tool. This technology changes nothing; it only amplifies. You decide how to use your tools. Whether to do good or evil.”

“It's the one thing we do better than any other animal.We communicate, cooperate, and make tools to extend our reach. Every new tool changes us...The old fears the new, and the two threaten destroy each other.Our technology is what makes us strong. And it's what makes us dangerous.”

“You don't pick your revolution. It picks you.”

“Plants, animals, men, angels, then God. Difference between men and angels is that men are stuck in a body. They feel pain, hunger, and thirst...But me and you, we don't have to feel them things...We can turn off the human condition.So maybe we're closer to the angels, you know? Creatures of the mind. A higher morality.The machine takes us deeper into our souls. That far inside, we're capable of anything. Way beyond right or wrong.”

“You know what you get when the mind and body act as one?...You get harmony...remember that. There is no you. There is no it. Mind and body need a single purpose.”

“Human beings, perfected by our own technology. Only to be wielded by the chosen few. Not by the sheep but by those who are better, Those who are willing to make it to the stars through blood.”

“I'd rather be weird and know it than be a stupid ass.”

“In the end, a man makes his own decisions. You decide, not the machine.”

“The rules are there so that we can remember them and follow them. If the rules were obvious, we wouldn't have to write them down.”

“These tools we love so much have burrowed under our skin like parasites...Making us smarter and stronger and always, always more dependent.”

“It's the technology, see? We can't get away from it. Anywhere you find people, you find it. Clever little contraptions. Cunning strategies. We're toolmakers born and bred; and even if you don't believe in anything else, you'd better believe in that. Because that's human nature.”

“Look at us. Amps. We're morons smarter than Lucifer. Cripples stronger than gravity. A bunch of broke-ass motherfuckers stinking rich with potential. This is our army. Our people. Strong and hurt. We're the wounded supermen of tomorrow, Gray. It's time you got yourself healed. New world ain't gonna build itself. And the old world don't want to go without a fight.”

“I will murder you by the billions to give you immortality. I will set fire to your civilization to light your way forward. But know this: My species is not defined by your dying, but by your living.”

“It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees.”

“Some unspoken human communication is taking place on a hidden channel. I did not realize they communicated this much without words. I note that we machines are not the only species who share information silently, wreathed in codes.”

“A mechanic is just an engineer in blue jeans.”

“See you in the funny pages...mate”

“I can only give you words. Nothing fancy. But this will have to do.It doesn't matter if you're reading it a year from now or a hundred years from now. By the end of the chronicle you will know that humanity carried the flame of knowledge into the terrible blackness of the unknown, to the very brink of annihilation. And we carried it back.”

“The monsters want to talk, to share what happened. They want me to remember and write it all down.”

“The human beings who appear in the data, survivors or not, are grouped under one machine designated classification:Hero.These damn machines knew us and loved us, even while they were tearing our civilization to shreds.”

“The true knowledge is not in the things, but in finding the connections between the things.”

“No matter how much kids beg to be treated like adults, nobody likes to let go of their childhood. You wish for it and dream of it and the second you have it, you wonder what you've done. You wonder what it is you've become.”

“How much change can a person absorb before everything loses meaning Living for its own sake isn't life. People need meaning as much as they need air.”

“It's dangerous to be people-blind.”

“Memories fade but words hang around forever.”

“Like me, it is comfortably lethal in a wide range of environments.”

“Necessity can obliterate our hatreds.”

“...humanity learns true lessons only in cataclysm.”

“There are no truer choices than those made in crisis, choices made without judgment.”

“If the knowledge is spread, it cannot be stamped out.”

“Technology changes, but people stay the same.”