Quotes from Max Brooks

Why do I go there? Where's my, what do you call it, "ego-defense mechanism"?

They teach you how to resist the enemy, how to protect your mind and spirit. They don't teach you how to resist your own people, especially people who think they're trying to "help" you see "the truth.

Communication implies intelligence, which implies an innate desire for peace.

The book of war, the one we've been writing since one ape slapped another, was completely useless in this situation. We had to write a new one from scratch.

They didn't break me, I broke myself.

But I mean, c'mon! Magic potions? Tell me you wouldn't be losing it too!

if you've never combined elements to create drinkable superpowers, listen very carefully to how it's done.

mundane potion

A giant frame, four by four

You should have seen some of the "careers" listed on our first employment census; everyone was some version of an "executive," a "representative," an "analyst," or a "consultant

Personally, I could have cared less.

challenging readers to watch these old movies "with the eyes of a six-year-old child, eyes that flick constantly from the terror on the screen to the dark, rustling trees outside the window.

armies perfect the art of fighting the last war just in time for the next one.

Redeker believed that to try to protect everyone would stretch the government's resources to the breaking point, thus dooming the entire population. He compared it to survivors from a sinking ship capsizing a lifeboat that simply did not have room for them all. Redeker had even gone so far as to calculate who should be "brought aboard.

When you're here, surrounded by it, connecting to it on a visceral level, you realize that that connection is the only way to save our planet. That's been the problem all along, destroying the natural world because we've created so much distance from it.

Moo," warned the cow, reminding me of the need for… "I know

the only Cuba I could ever imagine. That is, until the dead began to rise.

It's great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl

the best way to honor Chairman Mao's memory was to see his face on as many hundred yuan notes as possible.

On a des centaines de partis politiques et plus de groupes d'influence que de grains de sable sur nos plages. On a des grèves, des émeutes, des manifestations. Presque tous les jours. On comprend mieux pourquoi le Che s'est fait la malle après la révolution. C'est beaucoup plus facile de faire sauter les trains que de les faire arriver à l'heure.

When Travis D'Ambrosia became chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he not only invented the resource-to-kill ratio, but developed a comprehensive strategy to employ it. I always listened to him when he told me a certain weapons system was vital.

Instead of dropping fruit, I got a small sapling. "On strike again?" I asked my frozen hand, and dropped the mini-tree into my belt. Seconds later, when I got a second one, I absentmindedly stuffed it into the same pouch. That's when I realized that they'd not only shrunk

I don't know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.

You can't ask people to give up personal, tangible comforts for some ethereal ideal. That's why communism failed. That's why all those primitive, hippie, "back to the land" communes failed. Selfless suffering feels good for short crusades, but as a way of life, it's unsustainable.