John Scalzi Quotes

61 Sourced Quotes

When you're a teenager and you're in love, it's obvious to everyone but you and the person you're in love with.

John Scalzi
Now, you may think that this is some sort of generalized hatred that I will carry for the lot of you. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Each of you will fail, but you will fail in your own unique way, and therefore I will dislike each of you on an individual basis.

John Scalzi
Unlike Agents Vann and Shane here, who are being wholly disingenuous, you might be speaking out of genuine ignorance and not just your usual levels of casual obstructionism.

John Scalzi
I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army.

John Scalzi
You don't win by getting through all your life not having done anything.

John Scalzi
Sometimes I don't know if my life is complicated, or if it's that I just think too much about things.

John Scalzi
If you want me to treat your ideas with more respect, get some better ideas.

John Scalzi
When you control communication, you can hide anything you want.

John Scalzi
Empires of conquest don't last, Administrator Perry. They hollow out from within, from the greed of rulers and the endless appetite for war.

John Scalzi
What's the point of being in charge if you can't indulge in pointless favoritism.

John Scalzi
He's almost certainly planned for the contingency of being caught. He's rich and he's got more lawyers than some countries have people.

John Scalzi
I don't know, Davidson said. Maybe it's not about politics. Maybe these guys are just assholes.
Seems the simplest explanation, I said.

John Scalzi
Jared, allow me to share with you my philosophy of human beings. It can be summed up in four words: I like good people.

John Scalzi
The story of how I left Huckleberry begins — as do all worthy stories — with a goat

John Scalzi
Human technology was good, and weapon to weapon humans were as well-equipped as the vast majority of their adversaries. But the weapon that ultimately matters is the one behind the trigger.

John Scalzi
You are better at small talk than I am. That is not always a compliment.

John Scalzi
That's physicists for you. Not exactly brimming over with poetry.

John Scalzi
That's a nice speech, Trujillo, Rybicki said. It doesn't make it true.
General, at the moment, I wouldn't place you as an authority on truth.

John Scalzi
I don't think it would actually make you happier to be told you were right about this, he said finally.
I don't want to be happy, Dahl said. I just want to know.

John Scalzi
I had never seen so many old people in one place at one time. Neither had Harry. It's like Wednesday morning at the world's biggest Denny's, he said.

John Scalzi
It's Charlie's soul, he repeated. Or more accurately, it's a holographic representation of the dynamic electrical system that embodies the consciousness of Charles Boutin.

John Scalzi
Every creature has fear, Jared said. Even the non-conscious ones.
No, Boutin said. Every creature has a survival instinct. It looks like fear but it's not the same thing. Fear isn't the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.

John Scalzi
She was temptable—which, if you believe in an all-powerful God, means God intentionally put temptation into Eve. Which seems like a dirty trick, if you ask me.

John Scalzi
Rationality is not one of humanity's strong points.

John Scalzi
This is Major Perry's house?
I hope so, I said. All his stuff is here.

John Scalzi
Eight-year-olds can switch into acquisition mode pretty quickly.

John Scalzi
Teenagers can be idiotic and stupid, but teenagers also model their behavior from the signals they get from adults.

John Scalzi
If the universe is bigger and stranger than I can imagine, it's best to meet it with an empty bladder.

John Scalzi
The Scooby gang doesn't travel because they are looking for crimes to solve. They travel because they're one step ahead of the deprogrammers. Somehow, Fred's got them all snookered. It probably has something to do with the Scooby Snacks.

John Scalzi
You do what you have to do to give people closure; it makes them feel better and it doesn't cost you much to do it. I'd rather apologize for something I didn't really care about and leave someone on Earth wishing me well.

John Scalzi