Quotes from Kim Stanley Robinson

But things change as time passes; nothing lasts, not even stone, not even happiness.

We are making a better way to live. This was the myth, they had all grown up with it.

it's obviously a kind of cover—a pretend principle that is really about keeping the rules that protect their property and privileges, and letting the rest go to hell.

Anything is possible on Fasnacht, Art said. Let's go find the guggenmusikplatz, I like those bands. Guggenmusik? You know, brass bands. They're mostly school band reunions, and they play really loudly and out of tune. On purpose? Yes. It's a Swiss thing, I think. On festival night you're supposed to go wild, so for them that means playing your French horn out of tune!

The Michel program walked around, a hollow persona, empty inside, only some tiny homunculus of the cerebellum left to teleoperate the thing.

The religions that say you should sacrifice or even pray to a god like that, to ask them to do something material for you, are the religions of desperate and ignorant people.

You can't make love to your fame. Even though some people try.

When in doubt, just do it. Try something and observe the results. Good-enough decision algorithm

The virus is rewriting our imaginations. What felt impossible has become thinkable. We're getting a different sense of our place in history. We know we're entering a new world, a new era. We seem to be learning our way into a new structure of feeling.

The current rate of extinctions compared to the geological norm is now several thousandfold faster, making this the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth's history, and thus the start of the Anthropocene in its clearest demarcation, which is to say, we are in a biosphere catastrophe that will be obvious in the fossil record for as long as the Earth lasts.

Always they argued. Neither conceded anything, no compromises were made, nothing was ever accomplished. They argued using the same words to mean different things, and scarcely even spoke to one another. Once it had been different, very long ago, when they had argued in the same language, and understood each other.

How you think about what you're doing makes a huge difference

here's the genuine thoughtfulness and deep consideration for sake of truth and meaningful understanding. There's the recognition that if there were simple answers, we'd have already implemented simple solutions – and that not being the case, people have to work hard to discover the best - imperfect but with iteration ever-less flawed - courses of action and forget the pedantic and simple-minded debate points that so often mar discussions that should lead to progress.

So now I'm popular?" Freya says. "They hate me, and I hit someone, and now they like me?

But it could lead to trouble. Is a few minutes' passion worth that?" "It is, it is. Believe me.

so we shot him up with antibiotics and glued shut a slashed vein in the groin that was sure to kill him.

think? The narcissism of small differences.

This moment itself is all we ever live in.

Not to have a correct political view is like having no soul.

It was a mistake to speak one's mind at any time, unless it perfectly matched your political purpose; and it never did. Best to strip all statements of real content, this was the basic law of diplomacy.

Much of this call for "climate equity" was spelled out in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement. Clause 2 of Article 2 states, "This Agreement will be implemented to reflect equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances." Article 9's clause 1 repeats this principle: developed nations are to assist developing nations, they can and should do more than developing nations.

A nadie le importan los libros, por eso puedes escribir lo que te dé la gana en ellos. A la gente le importan las normas.

We should think of Earth as our sun. We all revolve around it, and it exerts a huge drag on us.

We'll all go on and make the place safe. Roads, cities. New sky, new soil. Until it's all some kind of Siberia or Northwest Territories, and Mars will be gone and we'll be here, and we'll wonder why we feel so empty. Why when we look at the land we can never see anything but our own faces.