Quotes from Ted Chiang

The difficulty of any trial was subjective, and there was no way to compare two individuals' experiences. And just as those whose suffering seemed greater than his should have compassion for him, so should he have compassion for those whose suffering seemed less.

He loved Him with an utterness beyond what humans can experience for one another. To say it was unconditional was inadequate, because even the word "unconditional" required the concept of a condition and such an idea was no longer comprehensible to him: every phenomenon in the universe was nothing less than an explicit reason to love Him. No circumstance could be an obstacle or even an irrelevancy, but only another reason to be grateful, a further inducement to love.

So minutes later, when Neil finally bled to death, he was truly worthy of salvation. And God sent him to Hell anyway.

As a girl she dreamed of following Fossey and Goodall to Africa; by the time she got out of grad school, there were so few apes left that her best option was to work in a zoo; now she's looking at a job as a trainer of virtual pets.

Das Vorhandensein des freien Willens bedeutet also, dass wir die Zukunft nicht kennen können. Und dass es einen freien Willen gibt, wissen wir, weil wir ihn unmittelbar erleben. Willensentscheidungen sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil unseres Bewusstseins. Stimmt das wirklich? Was wäre, wenn dieses Wissen ein dringliches Verlangen zur Folge hätte, ein Gefühl der Verpflichtung, genau so zu handeln, wie die Person wusste, dass sie handeln würde?

What he insists on is that they not love God under a misapprehension, that if they wish to love God, they be prepared to do so no matter what His intentions. God is not just, God is not kind, God is not merciful, and understanding that is essential to true devotion.

They figure that affection will produce better results, and the only way trainers will feel affection for Sophonce digients is with pharmaceutical intervention.

wanted Tamera to value herself in terms of what she could do, both with her mind and with her body, not in terms of how decorative she was.

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.