John Twelve Hawks Quotes

49 Sourced Quotes

Identity is not taste or fashion; it has nothing to do with what we've purchased in the past or want to buy in the future. Identity comes from making real choices that force you to decide what is true, fair, and just. Identity is not given to you; it's earned by your life experiences.

John Twelve Hawks
QUESTION: Is there a reason for the pen name? One you'd be willing to share, I suppose. As in, is it because you're actually a secret CIA agent and/or Russian spy, or merely because you don't ever want your mother knowing what you've written?
JTH: My mother and the rest of my family don't know that I have written the novels. Those people I know who aren't close friends see me as a failure by the American standards of success. Being a failure in such a way has been a continual lesson. It's helped me realize that we make quick judgments of others based on little real information. We assume so much – but don't know the secrets held within the heart.

John Twelve Hawks
Political affiliation is not a relevant part of this decision; privacy and personal freedom should be fundamental right for everyone.

John Twelve Hawks
Her face kept changing and that bothered me as well. Why were human beings so unstable? The door and the curtains and the supply cabinet didn't continually change their appearance.'

John Twelve Hawks
Mrs. Driscoll clapped her hands together and the bracelets jingled brightly. "Yes, Mr. Morgan! The theater can heal a wounded spirit and broken heart! I've seen it countless times. When we are completely artificial, we can find out what's real."

John Twelve Hawks
A Vast Machine watched and evaluated them, remembering their past actions and predicting their future behavior.

John Twelve Hawks
Half the things you've been taught in school are just convenient fictions. History is a puppet show for childish minds.

John Twelve Hawks
All the doctors that have examined you state that you appear to have no friends or family relationships and you are incapable of any sort of empathy. In short…you're perfect for this job.

John Twelve Hawks
All of us fight a battle every day, but we just don't know it. Love tries to defeat hatred. Bravery destroys fear.

John Twelve Hawks
Machines, no matter how sophisticated, can only follow programs. If we sleepwalk through our lives, then we're no better than machines. Only humans are capable of a job done well — which means thinking about the consequences of our actions. A job done well pays the bills, but it also improves the lives of everyone around us.

John Twelve Hawks
It took me years to realize that a computer would never truly be able to say cogito ego sum although dozens of lurid Hollywood movies about robots want to leave that impression. A computer thinks.... that is, it realizes it has been switched on... but it doesn't know it exists.

John Twelve Hawks
Walking is easy... but it requires faith to find the right path.

John Twelve Hawks
In Orwell's 1984, all Party members must assemble for a Two Minutes Hate session where they watch a propaganda film showing the Party's enemies. The establishment of the Virtual Panopticon insures that these group meetings aren't necessary. Those in power now have the resources to deliver a political message tailored to the specific fears of the individual citizen. Yes, we'll still have political rallies and conventions, but these will be empty gestures retained from the past.

John Twelve Hawks
Many of our leaders have gone past the old-fashioned politics of the democratic era and entered into the politics of fear. People running for national office no longer emphasize their views about the economy or social change. The leading political question of our time has become: who can ease our nightmares?

John Twelve Hawks
Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings.

John Twelve Hawks
If privacy had a gravestone it might read: Don't Worry. This Was for Your Own Good.

John Twelve Hawks
At the training camp, I was told that doors always open for a man wearing a hard hat and carrying a clipboard.

John Twelve Hawks
Life is dangerous. That's what makes it interesting.

John Twelve Hawks
Almost every important choice in our lives is really just an expression of hope.

John Twelve Hawks
All language – everything we say – is just an approximation of reality.

John Twelve Hawks
Any monitoring system that is invisible, pervasive, automatic, and permanent gives those in power the means to create a modern surveillance state. And these new states will have an authority that has detached itself from ethics and ideology. Politicians and dictators will continue to make speeches, but their words will become meaningless. This new system will see and know us. It will even predict our future behavior.

John Twelve Hawks
When people decide that a certain way of faith is destined and inevitable, hatred and intolerance follow. Instead of saying, 'The Light is within you, choose the Light,' the message becomes 'Agree with our version of history or we'll kill you.

John Twelve Hawks
In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.

John Twelve Hawks
The warrior uses the power of the brain to be deliberate and the power of the heart to be instinctive.

John Twelve Hawks
All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn't need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.

John Twelve Hawks
Our sense of powerlessness—the belief that an ordinary person does not matter—has twisted our lips into a sneer.

John Twelve Hawks
Many physicists these days sound like the Delphic oracle - with equations.

John Twelve Hawks
Human beings have an almost unlimited capacity for self-delusion. We can justify any amount of sadness if it fits our own particular standard of reality.

John Twelve Hawks
Artificial intelligence is a concept that obscures accountability. Our problem is not machines acting like humans — it's humans acting like machines.

John Twelve Hawks
True freedom is tolerant. It gives people the right to live and think in new ways.

John Twelve Hawks