Top 500 James S.A. Corey Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “There was justice to be had. He just couldn’t afford it.”

— James S.A. Corey

352. “You all right?” He smiled. “Why do you ask?” “Because you’re not all right,” she said.”

— James S.A. Corey

353. “This isn’t about good guys and bad guys,” Anna said. “Yes, we’ve picked sides now, because some of the actions they are about to take will have serious consequences for us, and we’re going to try to stop them. But what you’re doing is demonizing them, making them the enemy. The problem with that is that once we’ve stopped them and they can’t hurt us anymore, they’re still demons. Still the enemy.”

— James S.A. Corey

354. “He’d been driven by his fear to become someone else. Someone who handled fear by turning it into violence.”

— James S.A. Corey

355. “He’s young. He still sleeps sometimes. It’s a weakness.”

— James S.A. Corey

356. “Those kids? They’re illegal, but they don’t just vanish, not.”

— James S.A. Corey

357. “It seemed to her that the real sign you were getting old was when you stopped needing to prove you weren’t getting old.”

— James S.A. Corey

358. “What are you going to do?” “The same thing as always. Try to keep civilization from blowing up while the children are in it.”

— James S.A. Corey

359. “She tapped the red dot on the map that was the Tempest. “Anything you can do, I can do better.”

— James S.A. Corey

360. “Time was supposed to heal all wounds. To Drummer, that was just a nice way of saying that if she waited long enough, none of the things that seemed important to her would turn out to matter.”

— James S.A. Corey

361. “Will you be back?” Lydia said. She hadn’t meant to, because she knew in her heart, in her bones, and deeper than that what the answer was. Timmy smiled at her for the last time. I take it back, she thought. Kill him. Kill the boy. Kill everyone else in the world. Shoot babies in the head and dance on their bodies. Any atrocity, any evil, is justified if it keeps you from leaving me.”

— James S.A. Corey

362. “Lopez reached into his pocket, took out a small packet of white lozenges, and popped one into his mouth. He didn’t offer one to Holden. Lopez’s pupils contracted to tiny points as he sucked the lozenge. Focus drugs. He’d be watching every tic of Holden’s face during questioning. Tough to lie to.”

— James S.A. Corey

363. “It was easy to make fun of the marines when they weren’t listening. In Holden’s navy days, making fun of jarheads was as natural as cussing. But four marines had died getting him off the Donnager, and three of them had made a conscious decision to do so. Holden promised himself that he’d never make fun of them again.”

— James S.A. Corey

364. “It was normal to sacrifice animals. Rats, pigeons, pigs. Dogs. Chimpanzees. Biology had always suffered the cognitive push-pull of proving that humans were just another kind of animal while at the same time claiming to be morally different in kind.”

— James S.A. Corey

365. “Tilly screamed. Anna’s shocked brain only registered annoyance at the sound. Really, when had someone screaming ever solved a problem?”

— James S.A. Corey

366. “Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn’t work that way...”

— James S.A. Corey

367. “Part of his mind was screaming, but it was a distant one and easy to ignore.”

— James S.A. Corey

368. “You killed Dresden,” Fred said. “That’s a problem.” “It needed to happen.” “I’m not sure it did,” Fred replied, but his voice was careful. Testing. Miller smiled, a little sadly. “That’s why it needed to happen,” he said. The small, coughing laugh told Miller that Fred understood him.”

— James S.A. Corey

369. “People like us? We aren’t righteous. But we can pretend to be, if we want, and that’s almost the same as if it were true.”

— James S.A. Corey

370. “I could kill you with my hands, Marcus thought, and it was enough to evoke the smile that etiquette called for.”

— James S.A. Corey

371. “I actually read history. It’s like reading prophecy, you know.”

— James S.A. Corey

372. “As soon as we get the place secure, I’ll get in touch,” Miller said. “Okay, but don’t take too long. If Thoth Station has a whorehouse left standing, I’m going to need help prying Amos out of it.”

— James S.A. Corey

373. “Things change,” Alex said. “And they don’t change back,” she.”

— James S.A. Corey

374. “After dinner, Holden took a long, slow tour of his new ship. He opened every door, looked in every closet, turned on every panel, and read every readout. He stood in engineering next to the fusion reactor and closed his eyes, getting used to the almost subliminal vibration she made. If something ever went wrong with it, he wanted to feel it in his bones before any warning ever sounded.”

— James S.A. Corey

375. “We keep acting without thinking and you think the solution is to do it one more time. You have allied yourself with stupid, violent men, and you are trying to convince yourself that being stupid and violent will work. That makes you stupid too.”

— James S.A. Corey

376. “History was drenched in blood.”

— James S.A. Corey

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

— James S.A. Corey

378. “Humanity had come as far as it had in a haze of war, sickness, violence, and genocide. History was drenched in blood. But it also had cooperation and kindness, generosity, intermarriage. The one didn’t come without the other, and Holden had to take comfort in that. The sense that however terrible humanity’s failings were, there was still a little more in them worth admiring.”

— James S.A. Corey

379. “The man he’d once been wasn’t a collection of personality traits. He was the things he knew, the desires of his heart, the skills he had.”

— James S.A. Corey

380. “In Amos’ experience the more dangerous any two people were, the more carefully polite their social interactions tended to be.”

— James S.A. Corey

381. “Everything changed, and it went right on changing. A terrible thought when things were good, a comforting one now. Whatever happened, she could be certain that things wouldn’t stay the way they were now. And if she stayed smart and clever and lucky, she’d be able to affect how the next change came. Or take advantage of it.”

— James S.A. Corey

382. “The velocities and forces involved in anything at orbital altitudes were enough to kill a human with just the rounding error. At their speeds, the friction from air too thin to breathe would set them on fire.”

— James S.A. Corey

383. “Well, you’ve got a full load of torpedoes and bullets, three Martian warships trailing you, one angry old lady in tea withdrawal, and a Martian Marine who could probably kill you with your own teeth. What do you do?”

— James S.A. Corey

384. “That was the danger of being old and a politician. Habits outlived the situations that created them. Policies remained in place after the situations that inspired them had changed.”

— James S.A. Corey

385. “Reputation never has very much to do with reality,” she said. “I could name half a dozen paragons of virtue that are horrible, small-souled, evil people. And some of the best men I know, you’d walk out of the room if you heard their names. No one on the screen is who they are when you breathe their air.”

— James S.A. Corey

386. “The seas had been around longer than humans, had helped create them, and then when they were all dead, it’d take their water back without a thought.”

— James S.A. Corey

387. “The bartender – Chip – said, “Had a few too many of my margaritas?” “The first one was too many,” Holden replied, then climbed under the booth looking for the terminal. “And calling that a margarita should be illegal.”

— James S.A. Corey

388. “We’re fine now,” Sanjrani said. “We’ll be fine for three years. Maybe three and a half. Then the recycling systems stop being able to meet demand. We won’t have infrastructure in place to fill the gaps. And then we’ll starve. Not just Earth. Not just Mars. The Belt too. And once we start, we’ll have no way to stop.” “All right,” Michio said. “How do we fix it?” “I don’t know,” Sanjrani said.”

— James S.A. Corey

389. “A few generations living and dying without a sky, and enclosed spaces lost the atavistic terror of premature burial.”

— James S.A. Corey

390. “Jim, they make these things not to be fiddled with. The civilian version of this device fuses itself into a solid lump of silicon if it thinks it’s being tampered with. Who knows what the military version of the fail-safe is? Drop the magnetic bottle in the reactor? Turn us into a supernova?”

— James S.A. Corey

391. “He looked at the cop. He’d known the man less than a day, didn’t trust him, and wasn’t sure he much liked him. And this was who he’d die with.”

— James S.A. Corey

392. “The ocean, just outside, seeped into everything. An olfactory reminder to everyone passing through the Ellis Island of the space age that Earth was absolutely unique to the human race. The birthplace of everything. The salt water flowing in everyone’s veins first pulled from the same oceans right outside the building. The seas had been around longer than humans, had helped create them, and then when they were all dead, it’d take their water back without a thought.”

— James S.A. Corey

393. “Shouldn’t let go of being educated,” he said. “Universe spent a lot of time telling you something. Now you’re second-guessing it. Maybe all those other things were getting you ready for this.” Something.”

— James S.A. Corey

394. “What I want is Ceres Station or Earth or Mars. You know what they have in New York? All-night diners with greasy food and crap coffee. I want to live on a world with all-night diners. And racetracks. And instant-delivery Thai food made from something I haven’t already eaten seven times in the last month.”

— James S.A. Corey

395. “You ever wondered why I leave as soon as anyone else shows up?” “I’m special?” “Yeah, I wouldn’t go that far.”

— James S.A. Corey

396. “You’re making a mistake, shithead,” Avasarala said, and dropped the connection.”

— James S.A. Corey

397. “Captain,” Amos said with mock surprise. “Have you actually learned from your past? Is this a new thing you do now?”

— James S.A. Corey

398. “Meditating deeply so that she could really, clearly experience being angry and lonesome and hurt and horror-struck never seemed as good as a strong gin and tonic and another hour of work.”

— James S.A. Corey

399. “The universe is always stranger than you think. It didn’t matter how broad her imagination was, how cynical, how joyous and open, how well researched or wild minded. The universe was always stranger. Every dream, every imagining, however lavish and improbable, inevitably fell short of the truth.”

— James S.A. Corey

400. “The huge moments in life seemed like they should have more ceremony and effects. The important words – the life-changing ones – should echo a little. But they didn’t. They sounded just like everything else.”

— James S.A. Corey