# Quote — Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Mars

> Of course he had seen that human affairs were irrational and unexplainable. This no one could miss. But he realized now that he had been making the assumption that the people who involved themselves in governance were making a good-faith effort to run things in a rational manner, with a view to the long-term well-being of humanity and its biophysical support system. Desmond laughed at him as he tried to express this, and irritably he exclaimed, “But why else take on such compromised work, if not to that end?”
>
> “Power,” Desmond said. “Power and gain.”
>
> “Ah.”
>
> Sax had always been so uninterested in those things that it was hard for him to understand why anyone else would be. What was personal gain but the freedom to do what you wanted to do? And what was power but the freedom to do what you wanted to do? And once you had that freedom, any more wealth or power actually began to restrict one’s options, and reduce one’s freedom. One became a servant of one’s wealth or power, constrained to spend all one’s time protecting it.

- Author: [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md)
- Book: [Green Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars.md)
- Page: 234
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Green_Mars_(1993)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/of-course-he-had

## More from this book

> “It’s the same old story,” he said bitterly. “The resistance begins fighting itself, because that’s the only thing it can beat. Happens every time. You can’t get any movement larger than five people without including at least one fucking idiot.”

p. 315 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/its-the-same.md)

> If enough data points trouble the theory, the theory may be wrong. If the theory is basic, the paradigm may have to change.

p. 410 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/if-enough-data.md)

> “We could have a contest. Who does Jackie listen to least?”
>
> Maya laughed out loud. “Everyone would win.”

p. 488 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/we-could-have.md)