Leviathan Falls

Quotes

1. Nothing humans can touch goes unmodified.

   p. 510

2. 

   The dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies of childhood became the self-evident norms of adulthood.

   p. 96

3. 

   “We knew that, though.”

   “We suspected it.”

   “Do we know it now?”

   “We suspect it harder,” Elvi said. “We’re scientists. We only know things until someone shows us we’re wrong.”

   p. 151

4. 

   “Explain.”

   “Short version,” Ochida said, “light went faster.”

   Admiral Milan scratched his neck. “Did the word explain change meanings and no one told me?”

   p. 26

5. 

   Owning your mistakes meant not making them twice.

   p. 231

6. 

   “Are you sure it was him?” Teresa asked.

   “Provable? No. Silly to assume anything different? Yes. At this point I’d need evidence that it wasn’t Duarte before I’d entertain it seriously. I hear hoofbeats, I’m still thinking horses at this point.”

   p. 380

7. 

   Portraits of great war leaders or critical battles that looked flattering, well composed, and balanced always felt like propaganda. Tanaka had spent a lot of time in the halls of power. She’d seen many paintings of great men in uniform staring eagle-eyed into the distance where their future glory lay. She’d seen very few paintings of soldiers with only a ragged tent and a dying fire to hold back the cold nights before some stranger tried to bayonet them in the morning.

   p. 384

8. 

   This was a new variation, but that was all. She wanted to believe that, and like anything she fund herself wanting to be true, she forced herself to double-check it.

   p. 265

9. 

   She was reaching for supernatural answers when memory and mundanity were enough.

   p. 360

10. 

    “No, that was real,” Miller said. “Just a little reminder that we’re out of our depth here.”

    “Didn’t need it. Was clear,” Jim said.

    p. 434

11. 

    “Seems like the right tentacle ain’t keeping track of what the left tentacle’s up to,” Amos said.

    p. 240

12. 

    Jim’s sigh was soft, gentle. It would have been less devastating if she hadn’t heard the despair under it. “Detective Miller once told me, ‘We don’t have a right thing, just a plateful of a little less wrong.’”

    “Yeah, but he was an asshole.”

    p. 348

13. 

    “I can’t see how this all plays out.”

    “Sure you do. Everyone dies. That’s always been how it is. Only question now is whether we can find some way to not all go at once.”

    “If we do, then civilization dies. Everything humanity has ever done goes away.”

    “Well, at least there won’t be anyone who misses it,” Amos said, and sighed. “You’re overthinking this, Cap’n. You got now and you got the second your lights go out. Meantime is the only time there is. All that matters is what we do during it.”

    “I just want to go out knowing that things will be okay without me. That it all keeps going.”

    “That you’re not the one who dropped the ball.”

    “Or maybe,” Amos said, “you’re not that important and it ain’t up to you to fix the universe?”

    “You always know how to cheer me up.”

    p. 241

14. 

    But before they could go anywhere, they needed a place to go and a plan that was more fleshed out than Don’t die.

    p. 64

15. 

    Instead of actual experiential reports, Tanaka and her team gave versions of their own. Elvi had been in academics long enough to recognize when someone was glossing over data and skipping straight to interpretation. It almost always meant they were avoiding something they found unpalatable.

    p. 320

16. 

    Anyone could die at any time, and the universe didn’t give a shit.

    p. 122

17. 

    “It would have worked,” she said. “If we’d cooperated, it would have worked.”

    “It would have been better.”

    “I think about all the things we could have done, all the miracles we could have achieved, if we were all just a little bit better than it turns out we are.”

    p. 374

18. 

    “What we’re doing here is bigger than politics.”

    “I know,” he said. “I just keep hoping the politicians see it too.”

    p. 50

19. 

    She was all out of later.

    p. 231

20. 

    “Your Dad’s going to be different. But if anything about him is what it used to be? That part’ll be how he felt about you.”

    “That’s sweet,” Teresa said. “And complete bullshit.”

    “You don’t know. Until you have a kid, you won’t. I will plant my flag on that one. The love of a parent for their kid is the last thing to go.”

    p. 373

21. 

    Time for more smiling lies. More veiled threats. More—and he used the word as an epithet—diplomacy.

    p. 8

22. 

    “There’s sensor data already? I mean, I figured there’d be a few hours at least before they gathered enough to have a meeting about.”

    “When people don’t know anything,” Amos said, “they love having meetings to talk about it.”

    p. 383

23. 

    It also meant that their reaching out to the artifact had gotten it to reach back. Her experiment was working.

    She’d expected success to feel less like fear.

    p. 45

24. 

    He was grandiose. He was ruthless. He was a genius at a couple of things and under the misapprehension that it meant he was smart about everything. But in his mind, he was doing the right thing.

    p. 240

25. 

    We’re here to protect people’s freedom. I’m not sure what liberty is if you’re not permitted to decide what chances you’re willing to take.

    p. 65

26. 

    Every miracle we’ve pulled off, we’ve done it using primates. Just because we’re capable of mind-blowing wonders doesn’t mean we aren’t still sex-and-murder machines. The organism doesn’t change.

    p. 206

27. 

    “You make it sound like there’s a later in the game.”

    Miller’s smile was enigmatic, and it looked a little like sorrow by the time it reached his eyes. “Until death all is life.”

    p. 433

28. 

    “They’re people,” Naomi said, exhaustion in her tone. “We’re trying to do all of this with humans. Shortsightedness is coded in our DNA.”

    p. 253

29. 

    Teresa seemed older than adolescent Jim had been, both more knowledgeable about the universe and angrier with it. Maybe the two went hand in hand.

    p. 17

30. 

    “You mean what did you let yourself in for?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Too late to turn back now.”

    “I know. I’m just not feeling great.”

    “You want bullshit happy mouth noises, or the truth.”

    “Bullshit happy mouth noises.”

    “It’s great,” Miller said without missing a beat. “It’s having a long restful sleep full of interesting, vivid dreams.”

    A cramp ran through Jim’s gut, sharp as a screwdriver. “You’re right. That does sound great,” he said through clenched teeth. “I really think I’m going to like that.”

    p. 452

31. 

    “Optimism is for assholes,” Miller said with a laugh.

    p. 484

32. 

    Fatalism had its dark attractions, after all. Hopelessness and despair could almost look restful.

    p. 67

That’s all the quotes.

32 quotes in the collection · come back when we add more