"Anxiety is a useful tool: it forces us to make plans. But when too much anxiety freezes us into indecision, it needs checking."

Alastair Reynolds Literature See all quotes by Alastair Reynolds →

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More by Alastair Reynolds

“She wondered if she could put a dart in his eye. It would not kill him, but it might take the edge off his cockiness.”

“His parents had abdicated responsibility to an illusion.”

“But make no mistake. My counterpart is capable of a great deal of ruthlessness in pursuit of a just cause. He believes he has right on his side. And men who think they have right on their side are always the most dangerous sort.”

“I felt a terrible sadness open inside me, a void through which the winds from the end of the universe were blowing.”

“The future might have been crammed with miracles and wonders, but it also offered truly awesome opportunities for screwing up.”

“Sorry, Campion, but we can’t trust Lady Luck any more. Lately she’s taken to pissing on us from a great height.”

Resonant Thoughts

"If civilization is to be bound up with material advancement, we must accept its inevitable consequence, loss of freedom in enact proportion to the forward march."

— C. Rajagopalachari

Politics1878–1972

#freedom

"In point of fact there are a certain number of values and of forces which are of decisive importance in our world civilization: the primacy of production, the continual growth of the power of the Stat…"

— Jacques Ellul

Literature1912–1994

#history

"We have had office without power; responsibility without the full means of discharging it. I say to you that the times are too grave and the burden of government too heavy to be confronted or borne by…"

— Robert Menzies

Law1894–1978

#leadership

"The winter oak... is very useful in buildings but when in a moist place it takes in water to its centre... and so it rots. The Turkey oak and the beech both... take in moisture to their centre and soo…"

— Vitruvius

Technology-79–-14

#success