Quotes from Michael Crichton

Without question, the notion of the doctor as a legitimate fee-for-service entrepreneur, making his fortune from misfortunes of is patients, is old-fashioned, distasteful, and doomed.

But if planting deadly ferns at poolside was any indication, then it was clear that the designers of Jurassic Park had not been as careful as they should have been.

This may be why Einstein once said; Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind. The fact is that we need the insights of the mystic every bit as much as we need the insights of the scientist. Mankind is diminished when either is missing.

You must first learn patience, if you wish to learn anything at all.

Life is actually a series of encounters in which one event may change those that follow in a wholly unpredictable, even devastating way.

On the video monitor, they saw Ted Fielding slap the polished sphere and shout, Open! Open Sesame! Open up, you son of a bitch! The sphere did not respond.

Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.

People aren't studying the natural world any more, they're mining it.

They are not free at all. They are essentially our prisoners.

Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there's a McDonald's on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there's less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas.

A crisis is made by men, who enter into the crisis with their own prejudices, propensities, and predispositions. A crisis is the sum of intuition and blind spots, a blend of facts noted and facts ignored.

These kids were smart, they were enthusiastic, and they were young enough so that the schools hadn't destroyed all their interest in learning. They could still actually use their brains, which in Thorne's view was a sure sign they hadn't yet completed a formal education.

Herger said to me, Be thankful, for you are fortunate. I inquired the source of my fortune. Herger said in reply, If you have the fear of high places, than this day you shall overcome it; and so you shall have faced a great challenge; and so you shall be adjudged a hero.

They're both technicians. They have what I call 'thintelligence'. They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused'. They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences.

The number of hours women devote to housework has not changed since 1930, despite all the advances. All the vacuum cleaners, washer-dryers, trash compactors, garbage disposals, wash-and-wear fabrics Ã¢â'¬Â¦ Why does it still take as long to clean the house as it did in 1930?

Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

Skeptical scientists often point out, as Carl Sagan has, that the wonders of real science far surpass the supposed wonders of fringe science. I think it is possible to invert that idea, and to say that the wonders of real consciousness far surpass what conventional science admits can exist.

The internal psychological pressure to make up a story, to explain the ruins before one's eyes, is powerful indeed.

Having wallowed in a delightful orgy of anti-French sentiment, having deplored and applauded the villains themselves, having relished the foibles of bankers, railwaymen, diplomats, and police, the public was now ready to see its faith restored in the basic soundness of banks, railroads, government, and police.

Whoever has the power in society determines what can be studied, determines what can be observed, determines what can be thought.

Hammond turned to Gennaro. You know, of course, what Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler do. They are paleontologists. They dig up dinosaurs. And then he began to laugh, as if he found the idea very funny.

We have been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we are gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.

Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler

If you [don't] know history, then [you don't] know anything. You [are] a leaf that [doesn't] know it [is] part of a tree.