John Twelve Hawks > Quotes

“If privacy had a gravestone it might read: 'Don't Worry. This Was for Your Own Good.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Dark River

“Life is dangerous. That's what makes it interesting.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“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, The Traveler

“I spent my time drinking and staring at a television in the airport bar. More death and destruction. Crime. Pollution. 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, The Traveler

“Almost every important choice in our lives is really just an expression of hope.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City

“Human beings are tool-making animals. Since the prehistoric era, we have created and used a wide variety of objects.

But now a significant change is about to occur.

In the near future, we will simply become another object that can be monitored, tracked and controlled within a vast machine.”
― 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, The Golden City

“Many physicists these days sound like the Delphic oracle - with equations.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Dark River

“(...) I wanted to drink a decent glass of wine in the evening with good friends."

"Sounds like a modest goal."

"Yes, but even a small wish like that has implications. It means a community with free time, a group with enough income to buy the Merlot, and a general desire to enjoy the small pleasures of life. (...) In this context, a glass of wine becomes a revolutionary statement.”
― John Twelve Hawks

“You don´t need to watch everyone if everyone believes they're beeing watched. (...) Punishment isn't necessary, but the inevitability of punishment has to be programmed into the brain.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“When a person speculates about my identity, it reveals something about their own background and preferences. If the canvas is blank; the only thing people can see on its surface is themselves.”
― John Twelve Hawks

“Virtue is admirable, but boring.”
― John Twelve Hawks

“In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark: A Novel

“Religion, history, and philosophy are just fictions we’ve invented to explain our meaningless world.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark: A Novel

“Action requires courage,” Thomas said. “Inaction only requires excuses.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark: A Novel

“Time continued to move forward, each new moment falling into the future like a line of dominoes.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“I like hotels where you can check in at an electronic kiosk and never have to speak to a desk clerk. I dislike a gold-wrapped chocolate on my pillow, a turned-down sheet, a bathroom towel folded so that it resembles a flower, or any other "personal touch" that gives humans the illusion that they are surrounded by a friendly universe. In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark

“Thomas Slater says that modern authority is based on a system of lies that are accepted by the general population. If you pull away the curtain and show the reality of power, people are motivated to question the fictions that govern their own lives.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark

“Around none o'clock in the evening, Sean and I climbed onto the tar-paper roof of the U-Find-It building. On one side of the roof someone had dumped a pile of copper pipes and plumbing fixtures that had been ripped out of abandoned buildings. It looked like a giant puzzle that only angels could untangle.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark

“The Grid still exists even if you don’t see the lines”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“The most significant challenge to stability is the perverse impulse toward freedom. You can’t control this desire for freedom entirely with threats and punishments; it’s more effective if you teach people to doubt the reality of their own perceptions. When the system is working correctly, they censor themselves.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City

“Harlekine versprechen nichts, Maya thought in German. Harlequins don’t promise.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Dark River

“Walking is easy, but it requires faith to find the right path.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

“Never bow to the wicked. Never obey the command of someone who is unworthy.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City

“I remained silent and continued designing my Pyramid of Life. Dogs were at the top and I was at the base, but I hadn't figured out where to put cats.”
― John Twelve Hawks, Spark

“No one seems to realize how immense consciousness really is. It ties us to the rest of the universe.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler