Top 300 John Scalzi Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 4 of 7

151. “Pope was aware there were other ways to get more diplomatic respect than bigger guns, of course. But while other diplomatic maneuvers sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, ultimately a big damn gun always commanded respect.”

— John Scalzi

152. “Oh for God’s sake how divine can I be? My feet hurt, I have gas and I need to pee.”

— John Scalzi

153. “It’s not whether she tells everyone,” Huma said. “It’s whether they believe her.” “It’s the truth.” “Oh, my daughter,” Huma said, and smiled. “Don’t tell me you don’t know how little that actually means.”

— John Scalzi

154. “There was general agreement that Brahe was correct, until Gell-Man taught the squad to swear in Arabic.”

— John Scalzi

155. “If your social consciousness seems stuck in 1975, 2014 is gonna be a rough ride.”

— John Scalzi

156. “We buy time where we may.” “You bought yourself time,” Oi agreed. “I don’t think it’s of very good quality.”

— John Scalzi

157. “Is it painful?” the groundskeeper asked. “I am asking for science.”

— John Scalzi

158. “I don’t care whether I really exist or don’t, whether I’m real or fictional. What I want right now is to be the person who decides my own fate. That’s something I can work on. It’s what I’m working on now.”

— John Scalzi

159. “I both love and am terrified by Greg Van Eekhout’s vision of Los Angeles. I already want to go back.”

— John Scalzi

160. “Hey, you know what, basing an entire system of social, political and economic control on the vague, all-too-easily misinterpreted words of a single person claiming divine inspiration is probably not actually all that smart, now, is it.”

— John Scalzi

161. “I don’t think it matters what age you are when you figure it out,” Brous said. “I think the important thing is to figure it out before someone else tells you what you want to be, and they get it wrong.”

— John Scalzi

162. “Let’s just say that I anticipated that when I needed to leave Ponthieu, it would be suddenly, and that I might be chased. And that those chasing me might prefer that if I couldn’t be caught, that I should be rendered into very small pieces.”

— John Scalzi

163. “Listen to me or don’t. But if you don’t, you’ll be dead. And then where will you be? Dead, that’s where.”

— John Scalzi

164. “It takes a certain kind of dog to willingly demote himself from alpha dog, and that dog was Carl. Holloway would have to speak to him about it, for what little good it would do, Carl being a dog and all.”

— John Scalzi

165. “When you control communication, you can hide anything you want.”

— John Scalzi

166. “Well, that’s science fiction television for you, though,” Abnett said. “Someone’s got to be the red shirt.”

— John Scalzi

167. “At least one tribe, the Geln, strongly opposed attacking the Colonial Union, since humans were reasonably strong, distressingly tenacious and not especially principled when they felt threatened.”

— John Scalzi

168. “Again I ask permission to be blunt.” “Ambassador Abumwe, at this point I cannot imagine you being otherwise.”

— John Scalzi

169. “You can be happy anywhere, if you have the right point of view. And the ability to ignore the smell of an entire planet.”

— John Scalzi

170. “Yes, death by away team. Very effective on this ship,” Jenkins said.”

— John Scalzi

171. “Because this is what I learned about myself that first day: My body is my body. I don’t want anyone else in it. I don’t want someone else controlling it, or trying to. It’s my own little space in the world and the only space I have. And to have someone else in it, doing anything to it, sends me into a panic.”

— John Scalzi

172. “I don’t have a problem with treason,” I said. “I can stop anytime.” I.”

— John Scalzi

173. “Mom, I remember Lizzie,” Hart said. “She’s really not my type.” “She has a brother,” Wes said, from his lounge. “He’s not my type, either,” Hart said.”

— John Scalzi

174. “Really really really difficult,” Tony allowed. “But theoretically possible because, hey, it’s a quantum physics universe.”

— John Scalzi

175. “Life goes on even when Jenkins’ ‘Narrative’ is supposed to apply.”

— John Scalzi

176. “Lovely,” Wilson said, looking at the display. “And by ‘lovely,’ I mean ‘Oh, crap.”

— John Scalzi

177. “Weren’t we having a mutiny?”

— John Scalzi

178. “Even without the Interdependency, being interdependent was the best way for humanity to survive.”

— John Scalzi

179. “One of Harvey’s guiding lights in terms of strategies was simplicity; all things being equal, Harvey preferred the course of action that let him get into the middle of things and then just buckle down.”

— John Scalzi

180. “Wes is Wes,” Alastair said. “One in every family. I love him, but I think of him as a sarcastic pet.”

— John Scalzi

181. “His progress was more lateral than forward.”

— John Scalzi

182. “Who are you and what medications aren’t you taking?”

— John Scalzi

183. “That’s the human brain,” Attavio VI said. “It creates patterns when there aren’t any. Imagines causality when there is none. Imagines a narrative where none exists. It’s in the design of the brain itself. It’s primed to lie.” “And primed to believe the lie.”

— John Scalzi

184. “How much did you love her?” Jane asked. “Your wife. Kathy. When people are married for a long time, maybe they stay together out of habit.” “Sometimes they do,” I said. “But I loved her very much. All the time we were married. I love her now.”

— John Scalzi

185. “Well, ‘explode’ maybe isn’t the most accurate term. What actually happens is much more interesting.”

— John Scalzi

186. “While the elite of the Interdependency were making their plans to abandon the common people to their fate, the common people of the Interdependency were beginning to come to grips with what, exactly, that fate actually was.”

— John Scalzi

187. “What’s messed up here isn’t that this guy thinks we’re on a television show. What’s messed up here is that as far as I can tell, at this point, it’s the most rational explanation for what’s going on.”

— John Scalzi

188. “It worked because on a social level, apparently enough people wanted it to, and because at the heart of it, billions of humans living in fragile habitats prone to mechanical and environmental breakdowns and degradation, and with limited natural resources, were better off relying on each other than trying to go it alone. Even without the Interdependency, being interdependent was the best way for humanity to survive.”

— John Scalzi

189. “It’s war, you jackasses,” Keyes snapped. “I’m sorry it’s not terribly convenient or comfortable for you.”

— John Scalzi

190. “I’m sorry,” the groundskeeper said. “Usually the kharhn we feed to the kingsflower are already dead. I never get to see anything live fed to it. This is exciting for me.”

— John Scalzi

191. “Sometimes in life you’re going to win and sometimes you’re going to lose. But just because you lose doesn’t mean the other guy needs to win.”

— John Scalzi

192. “I propose a toast. Here’s to being right all the time. May God and history forgive us.” They all clinked glasses to that.”

— John Scalzi

193. “Part of me was once someone you loved – she sent. I think that part of me wants to be loved by you again, and wants me to love you as well. I can’t be her. I can just be me. But I think you could love me if you wanted to. I want you to. Come to me when you can. I’ll be here.”

— John Scalzi

194. “The short version was death, disease, despots and destruction. The longer version had kept him up wondering what the hell was wrong with people.”

— John Scalzi

195. “When I was a kid I watched a documentary about the movie Planet of the Apes. The first one, with Charlton Heston. They were talking about how they would make up all the extras as various types of apes, like chimps and gorillas and orangutans, and then the extras would go to lunch and they would segregate. All the people made up like gorillas would sit with other gorillas, all the chimps would sit with chimps.”

— John Scalzi

196. “General Gau had thanked for her candor in this as in all other things and then went ahead and did it anyway.”

— John Scalzi

197. “Yes. The one advantage we had, which is a thing I brought to the enterprise, was the understanding that the plan was not the goal. The goal was the goal, and we were going to get to it however we could. And if it meant changing our plans, sometimes in the middle of executing them, then we would.”

— John Scalzi

198. “To everyone who thinks writing a sequel should be easy because you’ve already created the universe: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Heh. No.”

— John Scalzi

199. “Fear enters the room and sits down in a chair and with a polite smile asks to open negotiations.”

— John Scalzi

200. “Cardenia gawked at Rachela I. “You’re unbelievable.” “I worked in marketing,” Rachela I said. “Before I was a prophet. After, too, but we didn’t call it that after that point.”

— John Scalzi