Quotes from Max Brooks

It's fear, dude, just fear and you don't have to be Sun freakin Tzu to know that real fighting isn't about killing or even hurting the other guy, it's about scaring him enough to call it a day.

Jesus, you'd think the Black Death was sweeping the globe every three months or so…ebola, SARS, avian flu. You know how many people made money on those scares? Shit, I made my first million on useless antiradiation pills during the dirty bomb scares.

But a vaccine! That's preventative! People will keep taking that as long as they're afraid it's out there!

We were taught since birth to bear the burden of our grandfathers' shame. We were taught that, even if we wore a uniform, that our first sworn duty was to our conscience, no matter what the consequences

Can you imagine what America would have been like if the federal government slammed on the brakes every time some paranoid crackpot cried "wolf" or "global warming" or "living dead"? Please. What we did, what every president since Washington has done, was provide a measured, appropriate response, in direct relation to a realistic threat assessment.

you dig and dig until you strike the absolute truth.

They used to call it the 'Great War'. But I'll be damned if I could tell you what was so 'great' about it. They also called it 'the war to end all wars'…'cause they figured it was so big and awful that the world'd just have to come to its senses and make damn sure we never fought another one ever again. That woulda been a helluva nice story. But the truth's got an ugly way of killin' nice stories.

Isn't that all we are? Just a brain kept alive by a complex and vulnerable machine we call the body? The

Only one could have foreseen this, and I don't believe in him anymore.

The first casualty of the conflict must be our own sentimentality" was the closing statement for his proposal, "for its survival will mean our destruction.

Ni siquiera el ejército era un bastión del patriotismo, sino un lugar donde aprender un oficio, conseguir comida y cama, y, quizá, incluso un poco de dinero que enviar a casa cuando el gobierno decidió que resultaba conveniente pagar a sus soldados.

Do they have to explain to Suburban Peter why they're fleecing him for Ghetto Paul?

know I come off as a little too optimistic, because I'm sure that as soon as things really get back to "normal," once our kids or grandkids grow up in a peaceful and comfortable world, they'll probably go right back to being as selfish and narrow-minded and generally shitty to one another as we were.

Fine, whatever, "Mister Smith goes to motherfuckin' Washington," it means that, in politics, you focus on the needs of your power base. Keep them happy, and they keep you in office.

Allow the forest to heal you," she said. "Release your pain. This land gives you permission to unburden yourself with each step.

Don't say it," I said, floundering ashore and into the judgmental gaze of Moo.

I found myself burning up, mentally. Fucking weakling, I told myself, fucking loser. I started to spiral, not just hating myself, but hating myself for hating myself.

Moo," called an approaching cow, its voice heavy with criticism.

booby trap.

When you're feeling small and scared—which, let's be honest, is pretty much how I feel all the time—isn't it okay, just for a moment, to want someone, something bigger than you to have all the answers, to have everything under control?

one of the "slow burns," where all the major blood vessels are missed. I

A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on. —CORDELL HULL, secretary of state to President

Zombies, ghouls—no matter what their label—these somnambulists are the greatest threat to humanity, other than humanity itself.

Wasn't this strategy, painting victory over defeat, the motive behind so many past wars?