Austin Longenecker > Austin's Quotes

“The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“No one escapes from life alive.”
― Michael Crichton, Congo

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Absence of proof is not proof of absence.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don't you take it away from yourself.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud. But,”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.”
― Michael Crichton

“[..]Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species."
Yes? Why is that?"
Because it means the end of innovation," Malcolm said. "This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on an ocean island and they'll evolve very fast. You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down. Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behaviour. We innovate new behaviour to adapt. And everybody on earth knows that innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee and they may get something done. Ten people, and it gets harder. Thirty people, and nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible. That's the effect of mass media - it keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there's a McDonald's on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there's less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity - our most necessary resource? That's disappearing faster than trees. But we haven't figured that out, so now we're planning to put five billion people together in cyberspace. And it'll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time. Global uniformity. [..]”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.”
― Michael Crichton

“A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They'll say, 'You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?' They'll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer better fantasies... And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That's the sea. That's real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That's all real. Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Welcome...to Jurassic Park!”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“Kids didn't have huge backpacks when I was their age. We didn't have backpacks at all. Now it seemed all the kids had them. You saw little second-graders bent over like sherpas, dragging themselves through the school doors under the weight of their packs. Some of the kids had their packs on rollers, hauling them like luggage at the airport. I didn't understand any of this. The world was becoming digital; everything was smaller and lighter. But kids at school lugged more weight than ever.”
― Michael Crichton, Prey

“The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide.”
― Michael Crichton, State of Fear

“Good novels are not written, they're rewritten!”
― Michael Crichton

“I believe my life has a value, and i don't want to waste it thinking about clothing.
I don't want to think about what i will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion?”
― Michael Crichton

“Real life isn’t a series of interconnected events occurring one after another like beads strung on a necklace. Life is actually a series of encounters in which one event may change those that follow in a wholly unpredictable, even devastating way.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don’t you take it away from yourself.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Geniuses never pay attention.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.”
― Michael Crichton

“Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“Life will find a way.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“Power is neither male or female.”
― Michael Crichton, Disclosure

“A man can see by starlight, if he takes the time.”
― Michael Crichton, Next

“You've never heard of Chaos theory? Non-linear equations? Strange attractors? Ms. Sattler, I refuse to believe you're not familiar with the concept of attraction.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.”
― Michael Crichton

“Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species.”
― Michael Crichton, The Lost World

“Take it easy, Norman. When the psychiatrist goes crazy, it's a bad sign.”
― Michael Crichton

“Safety is the last refuge of the scoundrel!”
― Michael Crichton, Timeline

“The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature--all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes exinct.”
― Michael Crichton, Congo