Peter Krevenets > Peter's Quotes

“In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are somtimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleetingly aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

“There's no reassuring ceiling over you, Moneo. Only an open sky full of changes. Welcome it. Every sense you possess is an instrument for reacting to change. Does that tell you nothing?”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

“Belief fixes a granular universe and causes that universe to persist. Nothing can be allowed to change because that way your non-moving universe vanishes. But it moves of itself when you do not. It evolves beyond you and is no longer accessible to you.”
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

“I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Some people never observe anything, Life just happens to them. They get by on little more than a kind of dumb persistence, and they resist with anger and resentment anything that might lift them out of that false serenity.”
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

“Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?”
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

“Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.”
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

“I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was human,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die human,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
As a human, I will die once more,
Reborn, I will with the angels soar.
And when I let my angel body go,
I shall be more than mortal mind can know.”
― Rumi Jalal ad'Din

“If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.”
― Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power

“Has it ever occured to you, Master Ninefingers, that a sword is different from other weapons? Axes and maces and so forth are lethal enough, but they hang on the belt like dumb brutes. But a sword...a sword has a voice.
Sheathed it has little to say, to be sure, but you need only put your hand on the hilt and it begins to whisper in your enemy's ear. A gentle word. A word of caution. Do you hear it?
Now, compare it to the sword half drawn. It speaks louder, does it not? It hisses a dire threat. It makes a deadly promise. Do you hear it?
Now compare it to the sword full drawn. It shouts now, does it not? It screams defiance! It bellows a challenge! Do you hear it?”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself

“There are many terrible mistakes to make in program design, and you should go ahead and make them so that you understand them. A sense of what a good program looks like is developed in practice, not learned from a list of rules.”
― Marijn Haverbeke, Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming

“The art of programming is the skill of controlling complexity.”
― Marijn Haverbeke, Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming

“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“Ему нужно панцирное мировоззрение, как корсет толстой бабе, иначе он расплывется.”
― Эрих Мария Ремарк, The Night in Lisbon

“...Вы знаете, конечно, что время - это слабый настой смерти. Нам постоянно, медленно подливают его, словно безвредное снадобье. Сначала он оживляет нас, и мы даже начинаем верить, что мы почти что бессмертны. Но день за днем и капля за каплей - он становится все крепче и крепче и в конце концов превращается в едкую кислоту, которая мутит и разрушает нашу кровь. И даже если бы мы захотели ценой оставшихся лет купить молодость, - мы не смогли бы сделать этого потому, что кислота времени изменила нас, а химические соединения уже не те, теперь уже требуется чудо...”
― Эрих Мария Ремарк, The Night in Lisbon

“Понимаешь, настоящий путь никогда не бывает движением по прямой. Это тебе не поездка на амобилере на ярмарку в Нумбану. Нет движения вперед, нет пункта назначения, куда надо прибыть в установленный срок. Это куда больше похоже на прогулку по берегу океана в шторм. Одна волна сбивает тебя с ног и уносит в открытое море, а другая выбрасывает на берег. Нет никакой цели, никакой Нумбаны, никакой ярмарки – ничего! Только твоя дурацкая, рискованная прогулка и безжалостные волны, которые увлекают тебя за собой, а в тот момент, когда тебе начинает казаться, что ты уже освоился в океане, снова выбрасывают на берег, и ты обнаруживаешь, что все нужно начинать сначала. Ты говоришь – все возвращается? Так оно и есть. Но не паникуй, парень: со временем ты поймешь, что всякий раз нас выбрасывает на иной берег, и мы начинаем с какого-то другого «начала».”
― Max Frei, Тайна Клуба Дубовых Листьев

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

“Ibrahim nods. “Let it go. Remember it as a happy time. You were at the top of the mountain, and now you’re in a valley. It will happen to you a number of times.” “So what do I do now?” “You climb the next mountain, of course.” “Oh, yeah, of course,” says Donna. Simple. “And what’s up the next mountain?” “Well, we don’t know, do we? It’s your mountain. No one’s ever climbed it before.” “And what if I don’t want to? What if I just want to go home and cry every night and pretend to everyone that everything’s okay?” “Then do that. Keep being scared, keep being lonely. And spend the next twenty years coming to see me, and I will keep telling you the same thing. Put your boots on and climb the next mountain. See what’s up there. Friends, promotions, babies. It’s your mountain.” “Will there be other mountains after that one?” “There will.” “So I can leave babies until another mountain?” Ibrahim smiles. “You do whatever you want. But looking forward, not back.”
― Richard Osman, The Man Who Died Twice