John Brunner Quotes

96 Sourced Quotes

Even this far from shore, the night stank. The sea moved lazily, its embryo waves aborted before cresting by the layer of oily residues surrounding the hull, impermeable as sheet plastic: a mixture of detergents, sewage, industrial chemicals and the microscopic cellulose fibers due to toilet paper and newsprint. There was no sound of fish breaking surface. There were no fish.

John Brunner
It's natural for a man to defend what's dear to him: his own life, his home, his family. But in order to make him fight on behalf of his rulers, the rich and powerful who are too cunning to fight their own battles—in short to defend not himself but people whom he's never met and moreover would not care to be in the same room with him—you have to condition him into loving violence not for the benefits it bestows on him but for its own sake. Result: the society has to defend itself from its defenders, because what's admirable in wartime is termed psychopathic in peace. It's easier to wreck a man than to repair him. Ask any psychotherapist. And take a look at the crime figures among veterans.

John Brunner
Faust felt like this. The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, the devil will come and Faustus must be damned … How long did he buy with the currency of his soul — ten years?

John Brunner
... include prima facie but not ipso facto the following: (a) Homosexuality or gross indecency with another male person; (b) Possession of or trading in an illegal narcotic or other drug; (c) Living upon the earnings of prostitution; (d) Membership in the Communist Party or one of its front organizations (see schedule attached); (e) Trainism ; (f) Advocating the violent overthrow of the government; (g) Slandering the President of the United States; (h)...

John Brunner
Special this week at your Puritan Health Supermarket!
Okinawa squash, reg. $0.89 $0.75!
Penguin eggs (low on DDT, PCB), reg. $6.35 doz. $6.05!
Pacific potatoes (unwashed), reg. $0.89 lb. $0.69!
Butter from sunny New Zealand, reg. $1.35 qrt. $1.15!
YOU TOO CAN AFFORD GOOD HEALTH AT PURITAN!

John Brunner
Not that a car would have been much faster anyway, what with the police posts at state lines, the searches, the restricted zones not merely in cities—one expected that during August—but right out in the country, in agricultural areas. Because of hijackers after food trucks, of course.

John Brunner