Top 200 Liu Cixin Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is.”

— Liu Cixin

2. “Make time for life, or life won’t make time.”

— Liu Cixin

3. “The whole universe is in darkness, but we remain lit. We’re a tiny bird tied to a branch in the dark forest, with a spotlight trained on on us.”

— Liu Cixin

4. “Mere existence is already the result of incredible luck. Such was the case on Earth in the past, and such has always been the case in this cruel universe. But at some point, humanity began to develop the illusion that they’re entitled to life, that life can be taken for granted.”

— Liu Cixin

5. “You must know that a person’s ability to discern the truth is directly proportional to his knowledge.”

— Liu Cixin

6. “It’s a wonder to be alive. If you don’t understand that, how can you search for anything deeper?”

— Liu Cixin

7. “It’s easy to make ideological mistakes in theory.”

— Liu Cixin

8. “People finally realized that if God truly existed, he was a real bastard.”

— Liu Cixin

9. “Life shouldn’t be a lifetime of waiting.”

— Liu Cixin

10. “The Earth is a cosmic soap bubble. One pop, and it’s gone.”

— Liu Cixin

11. “Fate lies within the light cone.”

— Liu Cixin

12. “The universe is grand, but life is grander. We’re certain to meet again.”

— Liu Cixin

13. “Make time for civilization, for civilization won’t make time.”

— Liu Cixin

14. “Of course she’s not afraid. She knows that the sun will rise again tomorrow.”

— Liu Cixin

15. “In the face of madness, rationality was powerless.”

— Liu Cixin

16. “Hide yourself well; cleanse well.”

— Liu Cixin

17. “The past was like a handful of sand you thought you were squeezing tightly, but which had already run out through the cracks between your fingers. Memory was a river that had run dry long ago, leaving only scattered gravel in a lifeless riverbed.”

— Liu Cixin

18. “Let’s turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on Earth and build up the trust and understanding between the different peoples and civilizations that make up humanity. But for the universe outside the solar system, we should be ever vigilant...”

— Liu Cixin

19. “A civilization that cannot see the sun and stars will be without religion. There.”

— Liu Cixin

20. “But when they gaze up at the stars, they turn sentimental and believe that if extraterrestrial intelligences exist, they must be civilizations bound by universal, noble, moral constraints, as if cherishing and loving different forms of life are parts of a self-evident universal code of conduct.”

— Liu Cixin

21. “The entire empire has sunk into a quagmire of extravagance from which they cannot extricate themselves.”

— Liu Cixin

22. “We’re going to advance! Advance! We’ll stop at nothing to advance!”

— Liu Cixin

23. “Growing up, his father had used silence rather than speech to educate him, and words were merely the punctuation between the silences.”

— Liu Cixin

24. “Indeed, it is the nature of intelligent life to climb mountains, to strive to stand on ever higher ground to gaze farther into the distance. It is a drive completely divorced from the demands of survival.”

— Liu Cixin

25. “Successful cooperation does not equate to successful understanding.”

— Liu Cixin

26. “What is civilization? Civilization is devouring, ceaselessly eating, endlessly expanding; everything else comes second.”

— Liu Cixin

27. “There are no permanent enemies or comrades, only permanent duty.”

— Liu Cixin

28. “From a physics perspective, the form of matter movement known as life has no more meaning than any other movement of matter. You can’t find any new physical laws in life, so from my standpoint, the death of a person and the melting of an ice cube are essentially the same thing. Dr. Chen, you tend to overthink things. You should learn to look at life from the perspective of the ultimate law of the universe. You’ll feel much better if you do.”

— Liu Cixin

29. “This was the theory of “contact as symbol” proposed by sociologist Bill Mathers of RAND Corporation in his book, The 100,000-Light-Year Iron Curtain: SETI Sociology. Mathers believed that contact with an alien civilization is only a symbol or a switch. Regardless of the content of the encounter, the results would be the same.”

— Liu Cixin

30. “If I destroy you, what business is it of yours?”

— Liu Cixin

31. “I need a dual-vector foil for cleansing.”

— Liu Cixin

32. “The abbot shook his head and said, “No, emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is a type of existence. You must use this existential emptiness to fill yourself.”

— Liu Cixin

33. “Death is the only lighthouse that is always lit. No matter where you sail, ultimately, you must turn toward it. Everything fades in the world, but Death endures.”

— Liu Cixin

34. “If we lose our human nature, we lose much, but if we lose our bestial nature, we lose everything.”

— Liu Cixin

35. “Staying alive is not enough to guarantee survival. Development is the best way to ensure survival.”

— Liu Cixin

36. “In China, any idea that dared to take flight would only crash back to the ground. The gravity of reality is too strong.”

— Liu Cixin

37. “But burning was their fate; they were the generation meant to be consumed by fire.”

— Liu Cixin

38. “Once we know where we are, then the world becomes as narrow as a map. When we don’t know, the world feels unlimited.”

— Liu Cixin

39. “Although the method is simple, it shows how, mathematically, random brute force can overcome precise logic. It’s a numerical approach that uses quantity to derive quality.”

— Liu Cixin

40. “The explosive development of technology was analogous to the growth of cancer cells, and the results would be identical:.”

— Liu Cixin

41. “And now we know that this is the journey that must be made by every civilization: awakening inside a cramped cradle, toddling out of it, taking flight, flying faster and farther, and, finally, merging with the fate of the universe as one. The ultimate fate of all intelligent beings has always been to become as grand as their thoughts.”

— Liu Cixin

42. “But one always awoke from a dream, just like the sun – which, though it would rise again, brought no fresh hope.”

— Liu Cixin

43. “Ten thousand times the web could be destroyed, and ten thousand times the spider would rebuild it. There was neither annoyance nor despair, nor any delight, just as it had been for a billion years.”

— Liu Cixin

44. “Your lack of fear is based on your ignorance.”

— Liu Cixin

45. “If so, I’ll just hold the umbrella up for you forever.”

— Liu Cixin

46. “In his mind, the city, as it awoke from its slumber, seemed to be built on quicksand. The stability was illusory.”

— Liu Cixin

47. “Time is the one thing that can’t be stopped. Like a sharp blade, it silently cuts through hard and soft, constantly advancing. Nothing is capable of jolting it even the slightest bit, but it changes everything.”

— Liu Cixin

48. “Are you under the impression that the object of everyone else’s love actually exists?”

— Liu Cixin

49. “At the end, an adult and a child stand in front of the grave of a Red Guard who had died during the faction civil wars. The child asks the adult, ‘Are they heroes?’ The adult says no. The child asks, ‘Are they enemies?’ The adult again says no. The child asks, ‘Then who are they?’ The adult says, ‘History.”

— Liu Cixin

50. “Young people are all the same. The more books you read, the more confused you become.”

— Liu Cixin