Karl Schroeder > Quotes

“The point is, if you treat reality like a game, it's going to show in your decisions.”
― Karl Schroeder, Lockstep

“The whole glittering nebula of shapes was framed by midnight colors—black, bruised blue, indigo, all textured into intricacy by clouds and the reachless vaults between them. Here, darkness was not simple; it hinted at structures and meanings, hidden activity and watchful eyes. Beacons flickered, miles away, then disappeared behind fog banks. Half-glimpsed ropes twisted and contorted their way up, down, and to every side, synapses reaching to contact the outlier towns and factories of Sere’s hinterland. One or two of those ropes, if you followed them far enough, would emerge into sunlight at other nations’ borders.”
― Karl Schroeder, The Sunless Countries

“Makers?" said Toby. Jaysir nodded.

"We're not loners, you know. There just weren't any on Wallop. We love to get together, we just refuse to engage in social relations that are based on material inequity.”
― Karl Schroeder, Lockstep

“Give people the power of the gods, and they'll eventually run down like wind-up toys for lack of reasons to go on.”
― Karl Schroeder, Lockstep

“The secret to life, she had said, was to find the little things, the unimportant ones that would nonetheless always remind you of the precious things they accompanied—and hold onto them.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“An ancient sage held that in different ages, humans held the senses in different ratios, according to the media by which they communicated and expressed themselves. Hence before writing, the ear was the royal sense. After writing, the eye.”
― Karl Schroeder

“Lost their stomachs, sealed up their anuses and adopted the autotroph way”
― Karl Schroeder, Permanence

“Frankenstein’s monster speaks: the computer. But where are its words coming from? Is the wisdom on those cold lips our own, merely repeated at our request? Or is something else speaking?—A voice we have always dreamed of hearing?”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Any object that lost its nanotags automatically became government property, so hard-working people and those who had lived for generations in ancestral homes here would see their properties expropriated. The farmers who had brought their produce to sell no longer owned that produce. The government knew this would drive people into the rebel cause in droves, but they had no alternative. Their orders came from Earth, after all. Earth was very far away, and the Rights Owners there would not be sympathetic.”
― Karl Schroeder, Permanence

“He spun in clear air, weightless again but traveling too fast to breathe the air that tore past his lips. As his vision darkened he turned and saw bike number two impact the side of the battleship, crumpling its hull and spreading a mushroom of flame that lit a name painted on the metal hull: Arrogance.”
― Karl Schroeder, Sun of Suns

“It’s not that simple.” “Ah! That phrase is Male for ‘I’m afraid to.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“She herself had told him that you can never hold onto anything. The harder you try, the more precious things slip through your fingers. The secret to life, she had said, was to find the little things, the unimportant ones that would nonetheless always remind you of the precious things they accompanied—and hold onto them. Like the fine furniture her husband had carved for her, seemingly centuries ago.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Archipelago is the only answer to ruling a population of trillions, who own a million different cultures, mores, and histories.” He shrugged. “It is simple: an artificial intelligence—a mechal brain, if you will—exists and mediates things. It knows each and every citizen personally and orchestrates their meetings with others, communications, and so on in order to avoid irreconcilable conflict. Beyond that, it stays out of sight, for it has no values, no desires of its own. It is as if every person had their own guardian spirit, and these spirits never warred, but acted in concert to improve people’s lives.” “A tyranny of condescension,” said Galas.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“that we be there to be spoken to than absent to be spoken about.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“To read is to make love to the world,” he said. “But to make love to a woman is to feel like the world is reading you.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Oh, I inherited my emotions from Calandria May, and I understand now that each human has a ruling passion, one that serves as the fountainhead from which flow all semblances of happiness, sadness, anger, and joy.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Mediation wishes to speak of other things. So Mediation will quote from an ancient human book. The Hamburg Manifesto says, “Thalience is an attempt to give nature a voice without that voice being ours in disguise. It is the only way for an artificial intelligence to be grounded in a self-identity that is truly independent of its creator’s.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Parliament is a rumor mill staffed by trough-fed clods who abuse the tongue of their birth every time they open their mouths. They all gabble at once and confuse one another mightily, and when this confusion is committed to paper they refer to it as ‘policy.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“The Good Book is the result of massive simulations of whole societies—what happens when billions of individual people follow various codes of conduct. It’s simple: if most people use the rules in the Book most of the time, a pretty much utopian society emerges spontaneously on the macro level.”
― Karl Schroeder, Lady of Mazes

“Per Diem 10 dites/day Visitors’ Card 75”
― Karl Schroeder, Permanence

“Every enlightened path can turn on itself and become a new tyranny,”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“I know that traditionally, monsters hang around empty places for no apparent reason—and”
― Karl Schroeder, Ashes of Candesce: Book Five of Virga

“My stage projection's a puppet; I could moon the crowd and the projectors would compensate and make it look like I'd bowed.”
― Karl Schroeder, Lockstep

“They had left the demigod they now called the Voice in a government creche in orbit. The Archipelago had facilities for newly born artificial sentients—a revelation that still astonished and unsettled Marya when she thought about it. The Voice had gone willingly into the maw of the jewellike orbiting structure; as the doors closed she had looked back, but Marya could read nothing in her gaze—neither hope nor fear.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“He sat down, mind empty for the first time in days, and watched the water for a while. Gradually, without really trying, he began hearing the voices of the waves.

They trilled like little birds as they approached the shore. Each had its own name, but otherwise they were impossible to tell apart. They rolled humming towards Jordan, then fell silent without fanfare as they licked the sand. It was like solid music converging on him where he sat. He had never heard anything so beautiful or delicately fragile.

He didn’t even notice the failing light or the cold as he sat transfixed. His mind could not remain focused forever, though, and after a while he made up a little game, trying to follow individual waves with both his eyes and his inner sense.

He tried to follow the eddies of a particular wave as it broke around a nearby rock, and in doing so discovered something new. It seemed like such an innocent detail at first: as the wave split, so did its voice. From one, it became many, then each tinier individuality vanished in turbulence. As they did, they cried out, not it seemed in fright, but in tones almost of... delight. Urgent delight--as if at the last second they had discovered something important they needed to tell the world.”
― Karl Schroeder

“Uh . . .” At that moment there was a knock on the door. Grateful for the interruption, Leal opened it to find Seana and Brun Mafin lounging outside. “Ready?” asked Seana. “I hope so, otherwise we’ll be late.”
― Karl Schroeder, The Sunless Countries

“But the soldiers would have gladly given up their beds to a woman.” “Yes, and I hate them for it.” She pushed him away. “It’s the arrogance of men that leads them to sacrifice themselves. Not real consideration.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“Armiger leaned over her and kissed her cheek. “Which what do I prefer?” “Do you prefer making love or reading?” He voice held a teasing note, but he had learned there were frequently hidden needs behind her teasing questions. “To read is to make love to the world,” he said. “But to make love to a woman is to feel like the world is reading you.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ventus

“DON’T ABUSE ME, I’ve never flown one of these things before.” Richard Reiss put the tip of his tongue between his teeth and squinted at the controls. While he did this, building blocks, tree limbs, and swirling leaves scudded past the plastic windscreen. Chaison stared at the ambassador. “Richard, why are you dressed as a clown?” Ballooning pantaloons and a polka-dotted top spilled out around the edges of Reiss’s seat; he had red smudges on his cheeks that he’d obviously been trying to rub off. The ambassador turned with great dignity, fixed Chaison with a steely eye and said, “It is a very long story, and one I find I would rather not relate.”
― Karl Schroeder, Pirate Sun

“Venera spent much of that time as the queen of a buzzing hive of courier bikes, who zipped in from all six points of the compass to drop off and pick up dispatches.”
― Karl Schroeder, Ashes of Candesce: Book Five of Virga