Quotes by Michael Crichton

In reality, time doesnt pass; we pass. Time itself is invariant. It just is. Therefore, past and future arent separate locations, the way New York and Paris are separate locations. And since the past isnt a location, you cant travel to it.

False fears are a plague, a modern plague!

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.

The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their beliefs.

I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.

Readers probably havent heard much about it yet, but they will. Quantum technology turns ordinary reality upside down.

“Extrapolating from the statistical growth of the legal profession, by the year 2035 every single person in the United States will be a lawyer, including newborn infants.”

“The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide.”

“You cant get decent Mexican food in DC.”

“Sometimes I think everyones an attorney.”

“This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.”

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.”

“Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species.”

“You know whats wrong with scientific power? Its a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are.”

“A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it cant be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics.”

“But now science is the belief system that is hundreds of years old. And, like the medieval system before it, science is starting not to fit the world any more. Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. Science can make pesticide, but cannot tell us not to use it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways---air, and water, and land---because of ungovernable science.”

“A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. Theyll say, You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly? Theyll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer better fantasies... And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? Thats the sea. Thats real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? Thats all real. Life is wonderful. Its a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isnt really anything else.”

“Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other.”

“Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!”

“But I did not expect science merely to extend lifespan, feed the hungry, cure disease, and shrink the world with jets and cell phones. I also expected science to banish the evils of human thought—prejudice and superstition, irrational beliefs and false fears. I expected science to be, in Carl Sagan’s memorable phrase, “a candle in a demon-haunted world.” And here, I am not so pleased with the impact of science. Rather than serving as a cleansing force, science has in some instances been seduced by the more ancient lures of politics and publicity. Some of the demons that haunt our world in recent years are invented by scientists. The world has not benefited from permitting these demons to escape.”