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Post-truth is pre-fascism.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

It is those who were considered exceptional, eccentric, or even insane in their own time—those who did not change when the world around them did—whom we remember and admire today.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

If lawyers had followed the norm of no execution without trial, if doctors had accepted the rule of no surgery without consent, if businessmen had endorsed the prohibition of slavery, if bureaucrats had refused to handle paperwork involving murder, then the Nazi regime would have been much harder pressed to carry out the atrocities by which we remember it.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

— On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

“He was a good man,” Holden said. “He wasn’t,” Fred said. “But he did his job. And now I’ve got to go do mine.”

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

It wasn’t really a drink. It was permission to sit.

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

There was an old joke. Miller didn’t remember where he’d heard it. Girl’s at her own father’s funeral, meets this really cute guy. They talk, hit it off, but he leaves before she can get his number. Girl doesn’t know how to track the guy down. So a week later, she kills her mom.

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Holden had once dated a Buddhist who said that death was merely a different state of being, and people only feared the unknown that lay behind that transition. Death without warning was preferable, as it removed all fear. He felt he now had the counterargument.

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

“Anyone drop a rock?” “Not yet. It’s all still orbital or higher.” “What kind of half-assed apocalypse are they running down there?” Amos said. “Give ’em a break. It’s their first.”

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

First off, get your shit together. Panic doesn’t help. It never helps. Deep breaths, figure this out, make the right moves. fear is the mind-killer. Ha. Geek.

— Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey