Quotes by Max Brooks

Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how theyre used.

The living dead had taken more from us than land and loved ones. Theyd robbed us of our confidence as the planets dominant life form. We were a shaken, broken species, driven to the edge of extinction and grateful only for tomorrow with perhaps a little less suffering than today. Was this the legacy we would leave our children, a level of anxiety and self-doubt not seen since our simian ancestors cowered in the tallest trees? What kind of world would they rebuild? Would they rebuild at all? Could they continue to progress, knowing that they would be powerless to reclaim their future? And what if that future saw another rise of the living dead? Would our descendants rise to meet them in battle, or simply crumple in meek surrender and accept what they believe to be their inevitable extinction? For this alone, we had to reclaim our planet. We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this wars greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earths once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now.

Often, a school is your best bet-perhaps not for education but certainly for protection from an undead attack.

I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.

Americans worship technology. Its an inherent trait in the national zeitgeist.

Feelings of any kind are not known to the walking dead. Every form of psychological warfare, from attempts at enraging the undead to provoking pity have all met with disaster. Joy, sadness, confidence, anxiety, love, hatred, fear—all of these feelings and thousands more that make up the human “heart” are as useless to the living dead as the organ of the same name. Who knows if this is humanity’s greatest weakness or strength? The debate continues, and probably will forever.

Most people dont believe something can happen until it already has. Thats not stupidity or weakness, thats just human nature.

There comes a point where emotions must give way to objective facts.

After all wed been through, we still couldnt take our heads from out of our asses or our hands from around each others throats.

America is especially sensitive to war weariness, and nothing brings backlash like the perception of defeat. I say “perception” because America is a very all-or-nothing society… We like to know, and for everyone else to know, that our victory wasn’t uncontested, it was positively devastating.

The highest distinction is service to others.

Unlike its human counterparts, an army of zombies is completely independent of support. It will not require food,ammunition, or medical attention. It will not succumb to panic, desertion, or out-and-out mutiny. Like the virus that gave it life, this undead force will continue to grow, spreading across the body of this planet until there is nothing left to devour. Where would you go? What would you do?

You cant blame anyone else, ... , no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices.

And then you got us. Yeah, we stopped the zombie menace, but were the ones who let it become a menace in the first place. At least were cleaning up our own mess, and maybe thats the best epitaph to hope for. Generation Z, they cleaned up their own mess.

Do you understand economics? I mean big-time, prewar, global capitalism. Do you get how it worked? I dont, and anyone who says they do is full of shit.

There comes a point when you have to realize that the sum of all your blood, sweat, and tears will ultimately amount to zero.

Looking back, I still cant believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of experts all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more shocking and in-depth than the last one. It was all so confusing, nobody seemed to know what to do.

What we did, what every president since Washington has done, was provide a measured, appropriate response, in direct relation to a realistic threat assessment.

Can you ever solve disease, unemployment, war, or any other societal herpes? Hell no. All you can hope for is to make them manageable enough to allow people to get on with their lives. Thats not cynicism, thats maturity.

The monkey didnt help matters any. He was sitting on top of the microbus, just watching the undead plunge to their end. His face appeared so serene, so intelligent, as if he truly understood the situation. I almost wanted him to turn to me and say, This is the turning point of the war! Weve finally stopped them! Were finally safe! But instead his little penis popped out and he peed in my face.