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Quotes About Action

It's, like, one of them drug dealer boats, Vic says, looking through his magic site. Five guys on it. Headed our way. He fires another round. Correction. Four guys on it. Boom. Correction, they're not headed our way anymore. Boom. A fireball erupts from the ocean two hundred feet away. Correction. No boat.
~ Neal Stephenson
Maybe that's how great warriors do it. Carelessly, not wracking their minds with the consequences.
~ Neal Stephenson
In any crisis, survivors will always berate themselves that they could have done more," Léna said, almost to herself. She blinked and then her sharp focus returned to Ocyrhoe. "I should get you out of Rome," she said, almost as if to herself.
~ Neal Stephenson
In a sword-fighting drill, where one participant is going to mount an attack and the other is to respond in some way, the attacker is known as the agent and the respondent is known as the patient.
~ Neal Stephenson
Commemorating the Holocaust is not, not not not not not, the same thing as fighting to prevent future holocausts. Most of the commemorationists are just whiners. They think that if everyone feels bad about past holocausts, human nature will magically transform, and no one will want to commit genocide in the future.
~ Neal Stephenson
In a sword-fighting drill, where one participant is going to mount an attack and the other is to respond in some way, the attacker is known as the agent and the respondent is known as the patient. The agent acts. The patient is passive.
~ Neal Stephenson
Fighting isn't about knowing how," Ty said. "It's about deciding to.
~ Neal Stephenson
BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat, emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements—this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off.
~ Neal Stephenson
If he lived by a simple code of ethics, it was not an end in itself, but a way to get something done without selling his soul or destroying his reputation. It was a tool to be wielded like a shovel or a stick of dynamite.
~ Neal Stephenson
flame within them gets dim with the passage of time. So, if you have the fire, run, since you never know when it may be doused, leaving you stranded in darkness. —John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Step
~ Neal Stephenson
He arouses violent controversy among a loose flock of chickens that is straggling across his path, none of whom can seem to figure out how to get out of his way; they're scared of him, but not mentally organized enough to translate that fear into a coherent plan of action.
~ Neal Stephenson
But the television news cameras couldn't get anywhere near the action, so the coverage mostly consisted of journalists interviewing each other about how little they knew.
~ Neal Stephenson
Dinah could spend the rest of her life living by her word, giving everyone a fair shake, and all of that. Rufus would no doubt approve of all those things. But it was not the charge he had given her. He had told her, though not in so many words, to get busy building a future.
~ Neal Stephenson
It is easy to be eyes and ears. It is harder to be fists and feet.
~ Neal Stephenson
Well, land sakes! Hiro says. Lookee here! He whips his blade sideways, cutting off both of the businessman's forearms, causing the sword to clatter onto the floor. Better fire up the ol' barbeque, Jemima! Hiro continues, whipping the sword around sideways, cutting the businessman's body in half just above the navel. Then he leans down so he's looking right into the businessman's face. Didn't anyone tell you, he says, losing the dialect, that I was a hacker? Then he hacks the guy's head off.
~ Neal Stephenson
Thirty seconds later, he's down in the cargo hold, Paul Bunyaning a crate of .45-caliber ammunition.
~ Neal Stephenson
serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.
~ Neal Stephenson
BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat, emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements—this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off.
~ Neal Stephenson
Fighting isn't about knowing how, it's about deciding to.
~ Neal Stephenson
the Deliverator's car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens.
~ Neal Stephenson
It's, like, one of them drug dealer boats," Vic says, looking through his magic sight. "Five guys on it. Headed our way." He fires another round. "Correction. Four guys on it." Boom. "Correction, they're not headed our way anymore." Boom. A fireball erupts from the ocean two hundred feet away. "Correction. No boat.
~ Neal Stephenson
She cuts between two veering, blaring, and screeching BMWs. BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat, emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements—this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off. She
~ Neal Stephenson
She cuts between two veering, blaring, and screeching BMWs. BMW drivers take evasive action at the drop of a hat, emulating the drivers in the BMW advertisements—this is how they convince themselves they didn't get ripped off.
~ Neal Stephenson
Much later, humans might rouse themselves to take action and be agents once again. But now and for long into the future they would be nothing more than patients.
~ Neal Stephenson