Quote

That to me is the basic message of events like the rise of Nazism, the Salem witch trials, and so on: not that bad people do bad things, but that good people do bad things.

Neal Stephenson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Neal Stephenson
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: October 31
Author
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Camp Annapolis Junction
Neal Town Stephenson
Stephen Bury
Events
Salem
Good
Nazism
Things
Witch
Like
Trials
People
Message
Basic
Rise
Messages

More quotes by Neal Stephenson

Image
Talent was not rare the ability to survive having it was.
Neal Stephenson
Image
I just assume I'm not invisible. I assume I'm wearing fluorescent clothes, and there's a million-dollar bounty going to the first driver who manages to hit me. And I ride on that assumption.
Neal Stephenson
Image
Most of the brain's work is done while the brain's owner is ostensibly thinking about something else, so sometimes you have to deliberately find something else to think and talk about.
Neal Stephenson
Image
How could your cover be blown in Canada? Why even bother going dark there? How could you tell?
Neal Stephenson
Image
...your Web browser is Ronald Reagan.
Neal Stephenson
Image
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
Neal Stephenson
Image
A few dud universes can really clutter up your basement.
Neal Stephenson
Image
The difference between stupid and intelligent people - and this is true whether or not they are well-educated - is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.
Neal Stephenson
Image
This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination.
Neal Stephenson
Image
That we occasionally violate our own stated moral code does not imply that we are insincere in espousing that code.
Neal Stephenson
Image
She's not afraid. She's wearing a dentata.
Neal Stephenson
Image
Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds.
Neal Stephenson
Image
I actually don't think that there is a connection between the survival instinct and a hunger for immortality.
Neal Stephenson
Image
This is exactly how the World Wide Web works: the HTML files are the pithy description on the paper tape, and your Web browser is Ronald Reagan.
Neal Stephenson
Image
It is what you don't expect... that most needs looking for.
Neal Stephenson
Image
One of the problems, hanging out with me, is that I can turn any topic into a toxic horror story. I've lost two girlfriends and a job by reading an ingredients label out loud, with annotations, at the wrong time.
Neal Stephenson
Image
It would be quite unusual for me to get deep into a project and then shitcan it. One of the advantages of having done this for a while is that I have a better sense than I used to of when something is or isn't working. Until I developed that sense, this was a pretty dicey career for me, both in terms of paying the rent, and emotional wear and tear.
Neal Stephenson
Image
A lot of secular, modern people claim to be disillusioned whenever they learn that any smart person is religious. That's applicable to Newton as it is to any other religious smart person
Neal Stephenson
Image
I am on an expense account that would blow your mind.
Neal Stephenson
Image
You should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that 'Diax's Rake.
Neal Stephenson