Octavia Butler - Keep Quotes

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Human beings fear difference, Lilith had told him once. Oankali crave difference. Humans persecute their different ones, yet they need them to give themselves definition and status. Oankali seek difference and collect it. They need it to keep themselves from stagnation and overspecialization. If you don't understand this, you will. You'll probably find both tendencies surfacing in your own behavior. And she had put her hand on his hair. When you feel a conflict, try to go the Oankali way. Embrace difference.

Octavia Butler
He was like me - a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.

Octavia Butler
We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that's the way things are. That's the way things always have been.

Octavia Butler
I didn't want to scare you. We don't want to scare anyone.
No? Well, sometimes it's a good thing to scare people. Sometimes fear is all that will keep them from doing stupid things.

Octavia Butler
When it comes to strangers with guns, I told her, I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust.

Octavia Butler