Malcolm X
- Progress
I will never say that progress is being made. If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven't even begun to pull the knife out, much less try and heal the wound. They won't even admit the knife is there.
Randall Munroe
- Shared Space House
This building flies through space just above the air. People from different countries built it and fly up to visit it in space boats. Because the house is falling around the Earth, things inside it hang in the air instead of dropping to the floor. Inside the house, normal things like water act very strange, and you can fly around by kicking off the walls. Everyone says it's a lot of fun.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground with walls and towers were girdled round: And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; and here were forests ancient as the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
William Lloyd Garrison
- To the Public
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD.
Daniel Abraham
- The Tyrant's Law
He had been that young once, that sure of himself and his ability to remake the world in the shape he chose. And it had been true, within bounds. It seemed like something that had happened to someone else, except when it seemed like it had all happened a week before.
Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
- Lucifer’s Hammer
"You're a man who knows what he wants, and you've found it. Not many can say that." "What can I do for an encore?" "Yes, exactly. What do you do when you've walked on the moon, and then they cancel the space program?"
Matthew Woodring Stover
- Heroes Die
You've already beaten the worst enemy you'll ever have - that voice in your head. It tells you the fight's already over, whispers there's nothing you can do... If you beat that voice, it's a victory that can't be taken from you. You might die, but you'll die fighting.
Abraham Lincoln
- Lyceum Address
From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.
Richard Kadrey
- Sandman Slim: A Novel
It's weird starting over from zero. It changes the scale of your ambitions. Instead of fantasizing about what kind of mansion you'll buy when you win the lottery, you ask yourself, "Do I own socks? Do I have a toothbrush? Do I have a shirt that's not covered in blood?"
Joe Abercrombie
- Before They Are Hanged
Anyone can face ease and success with confidence. It is the way we face trouble and misfortune that defines us. Self-pity goes with selfishness, and there is nothing more to be deplored in a leader than that. A great leader puts others before himself. You would be surprised how acting so makes it easier to bear one's own troubles. In order to act like a king, one need only treat everyone else like one.
