Quotes from Octavia E. Butler

This country has slipped back two hundred years.

People who are intelligent, ambitious, and at the same time, in the grip of odd obsessions can be dangerous. When they occur, they inevitably upset things.

change, and with Jarret, who with his war and his Crusaders, has slowed it even more.

When men have absolute power over women who are strangers, the men rape.

Then do this. The knowledge won't harm you if you decide not to use it. You need to do this. You've taken refuge too long in doing nothing at all.

I had only to move my fingers a little a jab them into the soft tissues, gouge away his sight and give him more agony than he was giving me.

To hear and to see Even an obvious lie Again And again and again May be to say it, Almost by reflex Then to defend it Because we've said it And at last to embrace it Because we've defended it And because we cannot admit That we've embraced and defended An obvious lie.

Education was no longer free, but it was still mandatory according to the law.

So when I did decide that I had to fight, I set out to hurt the other kid more than kids usually hurt one another.

Até mesmo um pouco de ficção pode ser útil [...] se você não precisar dessas informações, elas não serão prejudiciais. Você só vai saber um pouco mais do que antes.

She believed in a literal acceptance of everything in the Bible. Yet, when things got to be too much for her, she decided to trade pain for eternal pain in the hereafter. How could she do that? Did she really believe in anything at all? Was it all hypocrisy?

Sometimes I write to keep from going crazy. There's a world of things I don't feel free to talk to anyone about.

seduced by Jarret's talk of making America great again. He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries.

Even people who can't read are impressed by books.

She was too bright to take anything but the most superficial comfort from her denial. But even superficial comfort is better than none, I guess.

Never mind that the trade in abducted or orphaned children or children sold by desperate parents goes on all over the country and everyone knows it. No matter. The hint that some cult is taking in children for "questionable purposes" is enough to make some people irrational.

Secretaries of Astronautics don't have to know much about science. They have to know about politics.

You're supposed to be dirty now. If you're clean, you make a target of yourself. People think you're showing off, trying to be better than they are. Among the younger kids, being clean is a great way to start a fight.

Joseph sighed. "I don't understand why the sight of you should scare me so," Joseph said. He did not sound frightened. "You don't look that threatening. Just … very different." "Different is threatening to most species," Nikanj answered. "Different is dangerous. It might kill you. That was true to your animal ancestors and your nearest animal relatives. And it's true for you.

I mean he's like … like a symbol of the past for us to hold on to as we're pushed into the future. He's nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here—that we'll get through these bad times and back to normal.

They were slow changes compared to anything that might happen here, but it took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change.

The questions little children ask drive you insane because they never stop. But they also make you think.

Blind, closed, Suspicious, afraid, Ignorance Protects itself, And protected, Ignorance grows.

Different is threatening to most species," Nikanj answered. "Different is dangerous. It might kill you. That was true to your animal ancestors and your nearest animal relatives. And it's true for you." Nikanj smoothed its head tentacles. "It's safer for your people to overcome the feeling on an individual basis than as members of a large group. That's why we've handled this the way we have.