SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I know we've all highlighted (electronically or analogue) a few passages in books before. What are some of your favorites from SFF and what do you love about them?

from a movie, not a book: "This R2 unit has a bad motivator"

and from a non SFF movie: "Always with the negative waves, Moriarity" = Kelley's Heroes

I don't tend to quote passages from books (poor memory)

From the mouths of babes

"But Bel was free to act as she chose. She turned to the merchant. “You. You’re bothering me. Shut up or I’ll slit your throat.” The man dropped his fork."

"As you wish."

"Speech is sharing—a cooperative art. You’re not sharing, merely egoizing.” The Dispossessed

From Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:

"TANSTAAFL" (There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch)

“She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.”

The Handmaid's Tale

I think this is the best expression of complicity in patriarchy I've yet read.

“Their mother is Athene, the goddess of wisdom, and, although they are often ready to play the buffoon to amuse you, such conduct is the prerogative of the truly wise.”

The Once and Future King

This is my life mantra. It's part of a longer quote, but this part in particular that links the choice to be silly with great wisdom is something I feel very deeply

"Hell is the absence of people you long for."

Station Eleven

This as a description of grief that I think is beautiful.

"Lemme tell ya something, sweetface. I have been married at least four times, to four different men." She watched him chew that over for a moment before continuing, "They've all been named George Edwards but, believe me, the man who is waiting for me down the hall is a whole lot different animal from the boy I married, back before there was dirt. Oh, there are continuities. He has always been fun and he has never been able to budget his time properly and - well, the rest is none of your business."
"But people change," he said quietly.
"Precisely. People change. Cultures change. Empires rise and fall. Shit. Geology changes! Every ten years or so, George and I have faced the fact that we have changed and we've had to decide if it makes sense to create a new marriage between these two new people." She flopped back against her chair. "Which is why vows are such a tricky business. Because nothing stays the same forever."

The Sparrow

This is just so true. I am amazed by long long relationships romantic or otherwise because we are all dynamic beings. I think it's beautiful when people can change in complementary ways together.

I don’t really highlight quotes that often; the larger portion of my highlights tend to be things I want to remember when following a plot thread, or things I want to remember to mention in a review. Here are some, though.

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(Edit: Sorry, I just realized I probably should have added a spoiler tag to this quote since it's a current group read. It might be spoilerish if somebody is currently reading the book and isn't familiar with the story it's based on.)

(view spoiler)[ “I have heard that men who live by a waterfall cease to hear it – in such a way did I learn to live beside the rushing torrent of his doom.” (hide spoiler)] – The Song of Achilles

I guess that comes across a bit darker than I meant it in terms of “quotes to live by”, but that passage to me is kind of a reflection of the resiliency of humans. We may be living in a terrifying or stressful situation, but after enough time passes in that situation it becomes less all-consuming and we find ways to focus on the good things in life despite behind surrounded by some bad things too.

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“Never forget the cabbages.” – Pawn of Prophecy

This one needs no explanation. Ok, maybe it does, but I’m not going to give one.

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“Multiple exclamation mark are a sure sign of a diseased mind.” –Eric
“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.” – Reaper Man

Vital grammar advice from Terry Pratchett!!!!! I remember this whenever I get IMs or e-mails from a certain colleague who likes to use all punctuation in triplicate…

"We were having a philosophical discussion, as Mandalorians often do, and I asserted that the only demonstrable reality was individual consciousness, but he insisted on the existence of a priori moral values that transcended free will. So I hit him."

Order 66:


“It is a truism that when one is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The glory of art is that it can show this proverbial hammer how everything looks to a screwdriver--and to a plowshare, and to an earthenware pot. If reality is the sum of our perceptions, to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, literally, more reality.”

Blade of Tyshalle

"I yelled, “No!” which I’m not supposed to do; I’m always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they’re about to accidentally commit suicide.”
All Systems Red

This is the first quote I highlighted this year. I resonate with this so much due to all of my years working in retail. I laughed out loud, and when I can do that while reading a book it makes me so happy.

"I needed to have an emotion in private."
Rogue Protocol

I feel like this is so me because I always prefer to have emotions in private. So now I can just use this and walk away from things.

Caillen wrote: ""We were having a philosophical discussion, as Mandalorians often do, and I asserted that the only demonstrable reality was individual consciousness, but he insisted on the existence of a priori mo..."

I love that one!!!

HeyT wrote: ""I needed to have an emotion in private."
Rogue Protocol

I feel like this is so me because I always prefer to have emotions in private. So now I can just use this and walk away fro..."

HeyT, I completely agree! I can relate so much to Murderbot.


I try to live by the following two quotes:

"Reality can be beaten with enough imagination." - Mark Twain

"All life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other." - H.P. Lovecraft

To me, it means as humans, we need to make and experience stories and, in a broader sense, culture like books, theater, movies etc., whatever you're into. And the experiences we have creating and consuming culture are as real as any other experience. I have lived situations and experienced feelings reading books, doing larp etc., that I would never have experienced otherwise, and it has widened my horizon, increased my (emotional) intelligence and so much more. I would make the case a human being cannot exist without imagination.


"History is what you did, not what you almost did, not what you thought about doing." - Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

Your life is now. Do the thing.


"Sometimes people do things that you can't do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on." - Murderbot, Martha Wells


"Resentment is like drinking a poison and waiting for the other person to die." - Our Queen and Gerenal, Carrie Fisher


"Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.
Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart." - Michael Ende, Momo

To me, this is a reminder to be cautious about and chose intentionally how I spend my time.

CBRetriever wrote:

and from a non SFF movie: "Always with the negative waves, Moriarity" = Kelley's Heroes

Great line! Great movie!!!!!

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

Perfection, from the Lord of the Rings of course.

"Get busy living, or get busy dying."
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption:Hope Springs Eternal by Stephen King

It's very rare that I remember to highlight something, let alone add it as a quote on GR, but here are two:

Quote 1: “One must take human form to engage in human affairs. It was difficult.”

Quote 2: “Mentally competent people believe all kinds of goofy things”

(I don't have any Murderbot or gnole quotes added on GR, because I'd have to copy/paste the entire series.)

"There was a button, " Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life isn't it?"

- Nemesis Games

And of course I like that because I resemble that remark

“There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other is to lend.”

The Name of the Wind

Anna wrote: "It's very rare that I remember to highlight something, let alone add it as a quote on GR, but here are two:

Quote 1: “One must take human form to engage in human affairs. It was difficult.”"

I loved and remembered that one, too! It wasn't just funny, I also felt very ... seen by it.

Ines, exactly!

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognises genius." (Arthur Conan Doyle)

I've inspired chaos more than once by quoting that at dinner parties.

"Anyone who double-cross Tuco and leave him alive... he don't understand Tuco." (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)

I guess that's not a rule by which I live my own life but it comes at the end of one of the best exchanges in movie history (IMHO)

Hank wrote: ""There was a button, " Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life isn't it?"

- Nemesis Games

And of course I like that because I resemble that remark"

I'm dying because I literally stopped reading the book when I saw that and used the quote feature on BooklyApp because it killed me.

So for a while I would post a book quote everyday on my social media. Which means I have A LOT that I love and relate to. I’m going to toss them behind a tag to save everyone’s attention span.

(view spoiler)[That's the thing about human life--there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed. - Flowers for Algernon

It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people. – Good Omens

Love is many things none of them logical. – The Princess Bride

This is not the end. We are not standing on that howling ledge. As dim as our skies are, as far off as we’ve wandered, we have not yet reached that hopeless place, and sometimes we dream that we won’t. – The New Hunger

Everything on earth has meant something to someone, and there has never been a person whom no one ever loved. – The Burning World

I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right. – The Book Thief

But to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is to never die. And to burn in the memories of our friends is to never say goodbye. - Darkdawn

But that’s the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing. - Fahrenheit 451

In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses. – Warm Bodies

There is a lot about what is going on here that I don’t understand. But I am participating anyway. – Network Effect

You can't save people from the world. There's nowhere else to take them. – The Girl with All the Gifts

I've found that the way a person feels about cats-and the way they feel about him or her in return-is usually an excellent gauge by which to measure a person's character - Marked

The world may be mean, but people don't have to be, not if they refuse. – The Underground Railroad

The amount a person can spare is relative; the value of generosity is not. – To Be Taught If Fortunate

Grief can slam into you like a well-waxed window. But it means the ones you love aren’t lost or forgotten. They’ve made a home in your heart, which is the most permanent place of all. – Feral Creatures

After everything that's happened, how can the world still be so beautiful? Because it is. – Oryx and Crake

Studies have shown that swearing has an anesthetic effect. Swearing eases pain. – The Burning World (hide spoiler)]

I know Allison asked for WHY we loved them, but I think I’ve taken up enough of everyone’s time just listing them… 😊

“That wasn't snoring," Cruxer said. "I do not know what it is. We all eat the same food, but this man's anus ... If we could weaponize his farts ....”
― Brent Weeks, The Blood Mirror

As a person who collects quotes, it would be crazy for me to even start on this thread. I will just say the SF/F authors I have found to be the be the most collectable (quote-wise) in no certain order. Well... the king (for me) is Neil Gaiman. I've highlighted most of American Gods and The Ocean at the End of the Lane with very profound, meaningful quotes IMHO.

Other Notables:
Dan Simmons
Margaret Atwood
Ursula K. Le Guin
N. K. Jemisin
Peter Watts

Monica wrote: "As a person who collects quotes, it would be crazy for me to even start on this thread. I will just say the SF/F authors I have found to be the be the most collectable (quote-wise) in no certain or..."


I agree that Gaiman, Atwood and Jemisin are infinitely quotable. If you highlight their books for quotes you end up with colored pages!

looking back through my quotes, this was a good one

“Shut up, Penthos,” Harathes snapped at him, which would earn the man another week of impotence once they got back to civilization, not that he’d ever suspect who was behind his intermittent problem. Oh it’s good to be a magus.

from Spiderlight
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

it made me laugh

Looking through my Kindle highlights it seems I go more for "striking" than "words to live by." Memorization isn't something for me either (unless it's a phone number.) I did find some good ones despite that:

"One step and then the next. It had never been anything else."
Ancillary Justice

"As for female solidarity, without it human society, I think, would not exist. But it remains all but invisible to men, history, and God."
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters

"And still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory but because it assures you an honorable and sane life."
Between the World and Me

and here's another interesting one from way before Freedom Fries:

Rightists launched a hunt for “Shadow Huns” and changed the names of German foods. In the approved parlance, hamburger became Salisbury steak, frankfurters became hot dogs, and sauerkraut became liberty cabbage.

interesting about the origin of Salisbury Steak but googling doesn't bear this out.

Caillen wrote: ""to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, literally, more reality.

Blade of Tyshalle"

Oh I like this one!

Kaili wrote: ""I yelled, “No!” which I’m not supposed to do; I’m always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they’re about to accidentally commit suicide.”
All Systems Red

.."

Hah! So true irl, in retail or many other industries.

CBRetriever wrote: "interesting about the origin of Salisbury Steak but googling doesn't bear this out"

My guess is somebody made up that derivation because it sounded plausible. I mean, Freedom Fries... (dies of national embarrassment) Wikipedia says that it was named after a James Salisbury who advocated for a meat-heavy diet.

Beth wrote: "Looking through my Kindle highlights it seems I go more for "striking" than "words to live by." Memorization isn't something for me either (unless it's a phone number.) I did find some good ones de..."

I have that same Ancillary Justice quote saved and I disagree (respectfully of course), those are exactly words to live by.

“We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.'
'What is that, grandmother?'
'To understand other people.'
'Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see.”
― George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin
>> I read this book a dozen times when I was a girl, and credit what is good about me, in large part, to it.

“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
>> I've not read the book, but of course it's a wise and important insight for everyone.

“I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.”
― J.G. Ballard
>>A good reason to read imaginative fiction!

“You don't get suspense when the reader doesn't know what happens next--you get suspense when the reader *cares* what happens next. You don't get forward momentum from lots of frenetic things happening--you get it when the reader cares about what happens.”
― Ann Leckie
>> I've not read her books yet, but this could explain, largely, why they're popular.

“I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story.”
― C.S. Lewis
>> Of course! I live by this!!

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
>> Too perfect to omit.

“You have not thought things through,” he said. By his standards it was a brutal insult.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest
>> So important for everyone. My husband doesn't think things through and it absolutely drives me bonkers.

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“I don't like cleaning or dusting or cooking or doing dishes, or any of those things," I explained to her. "And I don't usually do it. I find it boring, you see."

"Everyone has to do those things," she said.

"Rich people don't," I pointed out.

Juniper laughed, as she often did at things I said in those early days, but at once became quite serious.

"They miss a lot of fun," she said. "But quite apart from that--keeping yourself clean, preparing the food you are going to eat, clearing it away afterward--that's what life's about, Wise Child. When people forget that, or lose touch with it, then they lose touch with other important things as well."

"Men don't do those things."

"Exactly. Also, as you clean the house up, it gives you time to tidy yourself up inside--you'll see.”
― Monica Furlong, Wise Child

>> Good book that I recommend. Advice that I am trying to obey.

Kristin B. wrote: "So for a while I would post a book quote everyday on my social media. Which means I have A LOT that I love and relate to. I’m going to toss them behind a tag to save everyone’s attention span...."

Worth clicking through; you've got some great ones!

I do expect to see more by Ray Bradbury as this thread grows.

That Wise Child quote is great, Cheryl. It's way too easy for those who don't have to (or choose not to) cook or clean to underestimate what it takes to make a home feel like a home.

“Everyone wants the stars. Everyone wishes to grasp that which exists out of reach. To hold the extraordinary in their hands and keep the remarkable in their pockets.”
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

It may be just me, but I think this quote is magical. It is how I feel when I am reading a good book. I am holding on to something extraordinary in my hands as my own. Loneliness becomes less and less because I have a story, something special, all for me.

I think this quote can also relate to various other things like wanting more out of life, wanting to feel more in control in a world of chaos. However, like the stars themselves, there are some things in life that are out of reach.

"Don’t cry. It’s no good hating them. They can’t feel it, and it will only turn you bitter.”
Secondborn by Amy A. Barton

I love this quote. It has such deep meaning, and when I first read the line it hit me harder then it probably should have. Most of the books I read fall under sci-fi or fantasy because I am looking so hard for an escape. Recently, I have reflected on my own life and the choices I have made. What I saw was how much was caused from bitterness I had. Now I try to think about this quote and ask myself in moments I am frustrated, be it at work or in my personal life, what is this frustration doing? Is it really hurting someone else ( I hope not) or is it hurting me in the end?

Littlelady913 wrote…

Wow.! Both quotes are lovely, but your words are just so poignant. Thank you for sharing!

very powerful, Littlelady!

“For as much as I hate the cemetery, I’ve been grateful it’s here, too. I miss my wife. It’s easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she’s never been anything but dead, than to miss her in all the places where she was alive.”
― John Scalzi, Old Man's War

"What else can there be, besides intellectual and physical prowess?"
"There's goodness. There's moral rectitude. There's doing the right thing when doing the wrong thing would be easier."

Robert J. Sawyer Fossil Hunter

I'm still working on this one myself. Everyone I know thinks that I'm an extraordinarily 'good' person but I know that I have to work on it.

"The world had gotten gritty enough. The only thing left to do in all that dirt was to shine."

It's from Space Opera and I think a lot of us need to hear this right now. I know I do. So here you go.

Thank you. Good 'un.

yes, that's a mood

“Going outside is highly overrated.”
― Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.”
― Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

This from Vita Nostra resonated with me so much as anyone on the groups discord server will know.

"She had no proper names for the blossoming trees that grew in the yard, but decided to call them “peacock trees.” Behind the unevenly trimmed bushes began the street that led to the shore. Sasha decided it was going to be called just that—The Street That Leads to The Sea. The street sign bore the real name of the street, plain and insignificant. It happened so often—beautiful things had stupid names, and the other way around..."

Even though Coraline is not one of my favorite Neil Gaiman books, this quote has always stayed with me:

“When you’re scared, but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”

I think it acknowledges that each person’s struggles are unique, and that facing your own fears is bravery (and an accomplishment worth celebrating) - even if it something that might have been easy for another person to do.

Yes yes yes. I love that, Kaia!

“No half measures. Some things can’t be cut in half. You can’t half-love someone. You can’t half-betray, or half-lie.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns


“Your death has not been waiting for your arrival at the appointed hour: it has, for all the years of your life, been racing towards you with the fierce velocity of time's arrow. It cannot be evaded, it cannot be bargained with, deflected or placated. All that is given to you is the choice: meet it with open eyes and peace in your heart, go gentle to your reward. Or burn bright, take up arms, and fight the bitch.”
― Mark Lawrence, Red Sister

The first one is just so very true. And the second one is simply badass. What can I say, Mark Lawrence is incredibly quotable.