Brin Quotes

Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people always apologize to corpses? ~ David Brin

With gritty action and realistic science, Peter Watts brings to life a dark and vivid world. ~ David Brin

The three basic material rights
continuity, mutual obligation, and the pursuit of happiness. ~ David Brin

Cultural contamination that is directed outward is always seen as 'enlightenment. ~ David Brin

When I begin a book, I inevitably discover many things along the way, about the characters, their past histories and the political intrigues that surround them. This discovery process is vital, and I would not prejudice it by deciding too much in advance. ~ David Brin

I'll teach you not to look at me like that," Charles snarled through his hair before pushing it off his face. "Do you think I didn't notice? The way you look at me when you think I'm not watching?"
Oh, God!
He had to get out of there. Slip out of his grip as soon as possible, before he lost control of his body. He was already feeling it in his groin - the fire Rochester had lit was already making his balls throb.
His reply was desperate, a whisper, a tiny, brazen lie: "You're mistaken."
"Oh, that's how it is, then? You have the nerve to tell me it's not true?" The next moment he felt something firm pressing against his buttocks. Something hot and shameless. Charles's rock-hard erection.
Dorian's lips parted in a surprised moan. The air escaped his lungs and treacherous arousal rose all the way to his throat, breaking his voice and his willpower.
"No…" I don't know. "I didn't mean to. I wasn't spying on you on purpose."
"But you did. You always do. ~ Valentina C. Brin

EVERY MOMENT IN business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won't create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren't learning from them. ~ Peter Thiel

One of life's joys was to have friends who gave you reality checks ... who would call you on your crap before it rose so high you drowned in it. ~ David Brin

Change is the very fabric of our time. ~ David Brin

Technology is an inherent democratizer. Because of the evolution of hardware and software, you're able to scale up almost anything. It means that in our lifetime everyone may have tools of equal power. ~ Sergey Brin

The village is coming back, like it or not. ~ David Brin

It was a strange trek - the sullen leading the apathetic, followed by the confused, all tailed by the inveterately amused. ~ David Brin

Deep down, most humans prefer living out their lives surrounded by comfortable certainties, guided by warm myths and metaphors, knowing that they'll understand their children, and their children will understand them. ~ David Brin

He approached the great glass barrier dividing the room, and the speaker at the end of the table. "Cyclops?" he whispered, stepping closer, clearing his tight throat, "Cyclops, it's me, Gordon."
The glow in the pearly lens was subdued. But the row of little lights still flashed--a complex pattern that repeated over and over like an urgent message from a distant ship in some lost code--ever, hypnotically, the same.
Gordon felt a frantic dread rise within him, as when, during his boyhood, he had encountered his grandfather lying perfectly still on the porch swing, and feared to find that the beloved old man had died.
The pattern of lights repeated, over and over.
Gordon wondered. How many people would recall, after the hell of the last seventeen years, that the parity displays of a great supercomputer never repeated themselves? Gordon remembered a cyberneticist friend telling him the patterns of light were like snowflakes, none ever the same as any other.
"Cyclops," he said evenly, "Answer me! I demand you answer--in the name of decency! In the name of the United St--"
He stopped. He couldn't bring himself to meet this lie with another. Here, the only living mind he would fool would be himself.
The room was warmer than it had seemed during his interview. He looked for, and found, the little vents through which cool air could be directed at a visitor seated in the guest chair, giving an impression of great cold just beyond the glass wall.
~ David Brin

But Orpheus failed because, like all pakeha, he just couldn't keep his mind on one thing at a time. ~ David Brin

He touched me. He… he whispered things in my ear, things I never would've expected to affect me the way they did. I feel like I lose control when I'm near him. I'm like a leaf fluttering in the wind - when he zigs, I zag. He talks and I jump. He walks and I turn into a blithering idiot. I admit it, I'm clumsy, but when I find myself near him…" He didn't have the courage to finish the sentence. With a sudden lump in his throat, he added: "I don't want to hope, and I certainly don't want to delude myself. Damn it, the thought of deluding myself terrifies me!"
"I think I know what your problem is."
"And what would that be?"
He sat up, offering a sly smile. "You're hopelessly in love with him. ~ Valentina C. Brin

It's said that 'power corrupts,' but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable. ~ David Brin

Every time humans discovered a new resource, or technique for using mass and energy, one side effect has always been pollution. Why should the information age be any different from those of coal, petroleum, or the atom? ~ David Brin

Science has learned recently that contempt and indignation are addictive mental states. I mean physically and chemically addictive. Literally! People who are self-righteous a lot are apparently doping themselves rhythmically with auto-secreted surges of dopamine, endorphins and enkephalins. Didn't you ever ask yourself why indignation feels so good? ~ David Brin

The notion of a universe filled with cowards ... who stay cowardly FOREVER, no matter how advanced they become ... seems no[t] only unimaginative and temporally myopic, but deeply dismal, as well. ~ David Brin

If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer. ~ David Brin

He would punish him for his impertinence. He would cane him right away, the second they left the room, then spend the rest of the day rubbing his raw wounds to remind him of the gravity of his offenses. But come nighttime, he would hug him tight to his chest to make Dorian understand that he would never, ever let him go as long as he had the strength to draw breath. ~ Valentina C. Brin

The health of an enlightened and progressive society is measured by how vibrant is its science fiction, since that is where true self-critique and appraisal and hope lie. ~ David Brin

Beware of self-indulgence. The romance surrounding the writing profession carries several myths: that one must suffer in order to be creative; that one must be cantankerous and objectionable in order to be bright; that ego is paramount over skill; that one can rise to a level from which one can tell the reader to go to hell. These myths, if believed, can ruin you.
If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego. ~ David Brin

Responsibility was our cruel mooring.... ~ David Brin

It's not enough not to be evil. We also actively try to be good. ~ Sergey Brin

Where is it written that one should only care about big things? ~ David Brin

If you want to chase a runaway ambulance toward what's left of the American Dream, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao show you that, still, somehow, boxing remains the yellow brick road in our country. ~ Brin-Jonathan Butler

We've seen a massive attack on the freedom of the web. Governments are realizing the power of this medium to organize people and they are trying to clamp down across the world, not just in places like China and North Korea; we're seeing bills in the United States, in Italy, all across the world. ~ Sergey Brin

The name was supposed to be 'Googol,' which is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. It was before the Google spellchecker existed. ~ Sergey Brin

When I was growing up, I always knew I'd be in the top of my class in math, and that gave me a lot of self-confidence. ~ Sergey Brin

If an outsider perceives 'something wrong' with a core scientific model, the humble and justified response of that curious outsider should be to ask 'what mistake am I making?' before assuming 100% of the experts are wrong. ~ David Brin

All I ask is ... ponder with open minds. We've made so many mistakes, humanity, during just one lifetime. Many of them perpetrated not by evildoers, drenched in malice, but by men and women filled with fine motives! Like you. ~ David Brin

Currently we don't have plans on conquering the world. ~ Sergey Brin

The dream is so pleasant: to extend a limited sub-portion of yourself into a simulated world and pretend for a while that you are blissfully less. Less than an omniscient being. ~ David Brin

Self-righteous people can talk themselves into forgetting they are part of a civilization. They can then feed on that culture, bringing it down. It's happened many times in the past. It could happen to us. ~ David Brin

Then again: from the critic's point of view, one of the truly wonderful things about the Star Wars universe is that the territory is so sprawling and borrows from so many sources that it's possible to find just about anything here, if you look hard enough. For example, the story of the original movie can also be summarized as, A restless young boy chafes at life on the dusty old family farm, until he meets a wizard and is swept away to a wondrous land where he meets some munchkins, a tin man, a cowardly lion and Harrison Ford as the scarecrow. ~ David Brin

My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea. ~ David Brin

Creative people see Prometheus in a mirror, never Pandora. ~ David Brin

In September 1998, one month after they met with Bechtolsheim, Page and Brin incorporated their company, opened a bank account, and cashed his check. On the wall of the garage they put up a whiteboard emblazoned "Google Worldwide Headquarters. ~ Walter Isaacson

I consider Yoda to be just about the most evil character that I've ever seen in the history of literature. I have gotten people into tongue-tied snits unable to name for me one scene in which Yoda is ever helpful to anybody, or says anything that's genuinely wise. 'Do or do not, there is no try.' Up yours, you horrible little oven mitt! 'Try' is how human beings get better. That's how people learn, they try some of their muscles, or their Force mechanism heads in the right direction, that part gets reinforced and rewarded with positive feedback, which you never give. And parts of it get repressed by saying, 'No, that you will not do!' It is abhorrent, junior high school Zen. It's cartoon crap. ~ David Brin

Whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people. And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party. ~ Sergey Brin

There was a time, in living memory, when this nation bestrode the planet like a titan. ~ David Brin

Self-awareness is probably overrated. A complex, self-regulating system doesn't need it in order to be successful, or even smart. ~ David Brin

I would normally never set out to write a trilogy. ~ David Brin

Mark Zuckerberg did his own software for Facebook, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin made their own for Google. ~ Xavier Niel

First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up. WIDELY COPIED INTERNET APHORISM, A PARAPHRASE OF PROTESTANT MINISTER MARTIN NIEMOLLER'S STATEMENT ABOUT LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY ~ David Brin

Generally, health is just so heavily regulated. It's just a painful business to be in. It's just not necessarily how I want to spend my time. ~ Sergey Brin

Every marvel of our age arose out of the critical give and take of an open society. No other civilization ever managed to incorporate this crucial innovation, weaving it into daily life. And if you disagree with this ... say so! ~ David Brin

The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation. ~ Sergey Brin

Men can be brilliant and strong, they whispered to one another. But men can be mad, as well. And the mad ones can ruin the world.
Women, you must judge them ...
Never again can things be allowed to reach this pass, they said to one another as they thought of the sacrifice the Scouts had made.
Never again can we let the age-old fight go on between good and bad men alone.
Women, you must share responsibility ... and bring your own talents into the
struggle ...
And always remember, the moral concluded: Even the best men
the heroes
will sometimes neglect to do their jobs.
Women, you must remind them, from time to time ... ~ David Brin

In other words, I look through my eyes and see only a version of the world, a version that can be, and often is, colored or twisted by what I want to see. Another person may witness the same events, and yet observe something entirely different. ~ David Brin

In the book, America had already been weakened by bio terror plagues before waves of selfish violence took down the rest. But the real enemy was the kind of male human being who nurses fantasies of violent glory at the expense of his fellow citizens. ~ David Brin

A method of schooling founded by the Italian educator Maria Montessori that emphasizes collaborative, explorative learning, and whose alumni include Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page; Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales; video-game designer Will Wright; Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos; chef Julia Child; and rap impresario Sean Combs. ~ Daniel Coyle

Your faith in Homo technologicus -the Tinkering Man- has one fatal flaw. It offers you no escape clause. ~ David Brin

It may be that the best time for Otherness has already passed. Clearly part of the basis for this renaissance has been wealth, especially the unprecedented comfort enjoyed by the vast majority of Westerners since World War II, in which very few of us can even conceive of starving ~ David Brin

free speech should be viewed as sacred and inviolable not simply for its own sake, but for utterly pragmatic reasons. Only through an active, vibrant, noisy ferment of criticism can blunders be discovered before they bring nations crashing down. Moreover, we can never tell in advance which criticism will later prove right; therefore, we must allow, foster, and even encourage all the criticism we can get. ~ David Brin

As sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon said, 90 percent of everything is crap. But science fiction has not been forgiven for its crap. The reason is that science fiction inherently distrusts the 'eternal verities' on which literature graduates base their doctoral dissertations. Literature departments were uncomfortable with that. But things change. ~ David Brin

Beware of assumptions that seem "obvious" in one decade. They may become quaint in the next. ~ David Brin

Generalization is a natural human mental process, and many generalizations are true - in average. What often does promote evil behavior is the lazy, nasty habit of believing that generalizations have anything at all to do with individuals. ~ David Brin

The best means to an end are not always those that appear most direct. ~ David Brin

What point was there in pursuing an ever-elusive popularity? ~ David Brin

The fundamental premise of sci-fi is not spaceships and lasers - it's that children can learn from the mistakes of their parents. ~ David Brin

Information is not like money or any other commodity. The cracks that it can slip through are almost infinitely small, and it can be duplicated at almost zero cost. Soon information will be like air, like the weather, and as easy to control. ~ David Brin

Metaphorically speaking, some very bright people suggest that citizens of the twenty-first century will be best protected by masks and shields, while I prefer the image of a light saber. ~ David Brin

Suri had a wolf named Minna. They were the best of friends and roamed the forest together. She had tattoos, was always filthy, afraid of nothing, and could do magic. From the first time I met her, I wanted to be Suri ... I still do.
- THE BOOK OF BRIN ~ Michael J. Sullivan

(Brin) 'How good is your lawyer, on a scale of Atticus Finch to Franklin and Bash? ~ Lisa Henry

As simple an act as reading or writing a sentence must be surrounded by perceptory nap and weave ... an itch, a stray memory from childhood, the distant sound of a barking dog, or something left over from the lunch that is found caught between the teeth. ~ David Brin

Las Vegas, the most expensive toilet in the world that still can't flush. ~ Brin-Jonathan Butler

Demonstrating some of the proposed new techniques of encrypted uniqueness verification that can be embedded in each customer's use-copy of a given work. ~ David Brin

Science Fiction is the jazz of literature. ~ David Brin

History and geology show what an eyeblink it's been since our current, comfortable culture came about. And yet that culture is using up absolutely everything at a ferocious rate. ~ David Brin

Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging ... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm? ~ David Brin

If there are still honest-smart men and women within those old and noble traditions, they should think carefully, observe and diagnose the illness. They should face the contradiction. Discuss the conflation. And then do as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and many others have done. Choose the miracle of creative competition over an idolatry of cash.
They should stand up.. ~ David Brin

When the dead betray the living, the victims are memories.
The Book of Brin ~ Michael J. Sullivan

While I have the floor, here's a question that's been bothering me for some time. Why do so few writers of heroic or epic fantasy ever deal with the fundamental quandary of their novels . . . that so many of them take place in cultures that are rigid, hierarchical, stratified, and in essence oppressive? What is so appealing about feudalism, that so many free citizens of an educated commonwealth like ours love reading about and picturing life under hereditary lords?

Why should the deposed prince or princess in every clichéd tale be chosen to lead the quest against the Dark Lord? Why not elect a new leader by merit, instead of clinging to the inbred scions of a failed royal line? Why not ask the pompous, patronizing, "good" wizard for something useful, such as flush toilets, movable type, or electricity for every home in the kingdom? Given half a chance, the sons and daughters of peasants would rather not grow up to be servants. It seems bizarre for modern folk to pine for a way of life our ancestors rightfully fought desperately to escape. ~ David Brin

There's a reason why kings built large palaces, sat on thrones and wore rubies all over. There's a whole social need for that, not to oppress the masses, but to impress the masses and make them proud and allow them to feel good about their culture, their government and their ruler so that they are left feeling that a ruler has the right to rule over them, so that they feel good rather than disgusted about being ruled. - George Lucas, New York Times, 1999 ~ David Brin

Your neighbors are not all sheep. Your political opponents are not all evil or fools. Try talking to those you despise. They are your fellow citizens. And together, we are not lesser than any "greatest generation.". ~ David Brin

I had to admit, standing there, that sometimes you just gotta admire the passion of the truly insane
a passion that bulls right past all sense or reason. ~ David Brin

Where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge. ~ David Brin

If facts are inconvenient, well, damn those who live and work with facts. ~ David Brin

If what we are doing is not seen by some people as science fiction, it's probably not transformative enough ~ Sergey Brin

I regret having been the bearer of ambiguous tidings. ~ David Brin

In 1983, Michael W. Doyle commented on the common observation that democracies almost never wage war on one another. Understanding the reasons for this phenomenon may be crucial to our hopes for preventing devastating conflict in the next generation. Which attributes of democracy foster this essential trait of mutual nonaggression? ~ David Brin

We aren't a curse upon the world. We are her new eyes. Her brain, testes, ovaries ... her ambition and her heart. Her voice. So sing. (556) ~ David Brin

Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems. ~ Sergey Brin

Freedom was wonderful beyond relief. But with it came that bitch, Duty. ~ David Brin

It takes great wisdom, maturity, and force of will to overcome ingrained human egotism and say
"Hey, I can fool myself! I might even be wrong, from time to time." ~ David Brin

Obviously they thought their Lord was giving the haughty tirbeswoman ~ David Brin

Heroes are those who refuse to create or become victims. I failed to see it then, but I lived among many heroes. I think maybe everyone does." --THE BOOK OF BRIN ~ Michael J. Sullivan

My education and background thoroughly inform my writing. ~ David Brin

I may not ever be able to be certain what is absolutely True ... but I sure as heck can work to find out what isn't true! Moreover, I can improve my model of the world, by slowly, carefully finding out what is truer than what I already know. ~ David Brin

Analog, or Asimov's Magazine, or The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. ~ David Brin

a species used to strict patterns of inherited hierarchy. ~ David Brin

We want Google to be the third half of your brain. ~ Sergey Brin

Cuban eyes often look close to tears. Tears never seem far away because both their pain and their joy are always so close to the surface. ~ Brin-Jonathan Butler

It's how creativity works. Especially in humans. For every good idea, ten thousand idiotic ones must first be posed, sifted, tried out, and discarded. A mind that's afraid to toy with the ridiculous will never come up with the brilliantly original. ~ David Brin

I wish there were a hundred services with which I could easily look at such a book; it would have saved me a lot of time, and it would have spared Google a tremendous amount of effort. ~ Sergey Brin

Magic and art arise from an egomaniac's insistence that the artist is right, and the universe wrong. ~ David Brin

In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march. ~ David Brin