Cryptonomicon Quotes & Sayings

Melville, in his relation to belief, was like the last guest who cannot leave the party; he was always returning to see if he had left his had and gloves. — James Wood

Racism is cruel and unjust. It cuts deep and lingers long in individual and community memories. And it is not a thing of the past ... We all have a duty to do what we can to turn this around. — William Deane

Ronald Reagan has a stack of three-by-five cards in his lap. He skids up a new one: "What advice do you, as the youngest American fighting man ever to win both the Navy Cross and the Silver Star, have for any young marines on their way to Guadalcanal?"
Shaftoe doesn't have to think very long. The memories are still as fresh as last night's eleventh nighmare: ten plucky Nips in Suicide Charge!
"Just kill the one with the sword first."
"Ah," Reagan says, raising his waxed and penciled eyebrows, and cocking his pompadour in Shaftoe's direction. "Smarrrt
you target them because they're the officers, right?"
"No, fuckhead!" Shaftoe yells. "You kill 'em because they've got fucking swords! You ever had anyone running at you waving a fucking sword? — Neal Stephenson

It would be an idyllic tropical paradise if not for the malaria, the insects, the constant diarrhea and resulting hemorrhoids, and the fact that the people are dirty and smell bad and eat each other and use human heads for decoration. — Neal Stephenson

Finn caught my expression and cuffed my chin. "What?"
"I'm feeling especially Hank Shelby-ish at the moment, Clyde. Mean and ugly. I need a miracle makeover, and I don't think I can pull one out of a Wally bag."
"We've come this far, Bonnie Rae. We can find a dress in a party town like Vegas with our hands tied behind our backs. We have five hours, and we're in walking distance of everything. Don't cry, Hank. We'll find you a pretty dress." He winked at me, and I gave him a smile, but Finn had no idea what he was getting into. I decided not to even try to explain — Amy Harmon

New Year, the season for changes in positions and advances in salaries, approaches. If you have in your employ some who deserve more salary, do not compel them to go through the unpleasant ordeal of asking a raise, but, rather, voluntarily increase their remuneration. A raise that comes from the boss without asking is worth a lot more than one that has to be gouged out of him. Is it not true that a great many employers who would not dream of overcharging their customers have no qualms whatever about underpaying their employees if the latter will submit without protest? — B.C. Forbes

He felt as if he were hurtling down a dark tunnel, one that had no end, no sides to grip to slow his fall. — Cassandra Clare

When you get rid of the estate tax," he (Warren Buffet) said, "you're basically handing over command of the country's resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games. — Barack Obama

recognizing the unworkability of a connection isn't a judgment on any individual. It's just an acceptance of the complexity of this world and how difficult it is to match needs and expectations. Generally, — John Warren

Most of them had not understood Blackberry's discovery of the raft and at once forgot it. — Richard Adams

Neal Stephenson is great. He can write about a white wall for six pages, and it sounds fascinating. I read the whole 'Baroque Cycle' and 'Cryptonomicon.' — Daniel Suarez

hope you can wear her down before you both die of old age, — K.M. Shea

She closed her eyes. "Okay, here's the thing. We have some chemistry," she allowed.
"Some? Or supernova?"
"Supernova. But," she said to his knowing grin. Good Lord, he needed to stop doing that. "I really did give up men."
"Forever?"
"My gut says yes, but that might be PMS talking. Let's just say I'm giving up men for a very long time."
"You going to try out women? — Jill Shalvis

Can I help you with something?" he asks. His lips twitch, fighting a losing battle against a wretched, playful grin.

I try to look cross with him, if only to keep up appearances. "You're supposed to be training."

"Worried I'm not getting enough exercise? I assure you, Mare," he says, winking, "we are."

It makes sense. Farley and Shade have been inseparable for a long while. Still, I gasp aloud, and swat his arm. "Shade Barrow!"

"Oh, come on, everyone knows. Not my fault you didn't figure it out. — Victoria Aveyard

Unless you are as smart as Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, savvy as a half-blind Calcutta bootblack, tough as General William Tecumseh Sherman, rich as the Queen of England, emotionally resilient as a Red Sox fan, and as generally able to take care of yourself as the average nuclear missile submarine commander, you should never have been allowed near this document. — Neal Stephenson

I want to be taken playfully, not seriously - not with a long British face, but with beautiful laughter. Your laughter, your playfulness is the recognition that you have understood me. Your seriousness shows that you have misunderstood me, you have missed it - because seriousness is nothing but sickness. It is another name of sadness; it is a shadow of death. And I am all for life. If it is needed for your laughter, your dance, even to reject me, then reject me - but don't reject the dance and the song and the life, because that is my teaching. — Rajneesh

Hope is a gift we give ourselves, and it remains when all else is gone. — Naomi Judd

Hair is the most delicate and lasting of our materials, and survives us, like love. It is so light, so gentle; so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend, we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with the angelic nature,
may almost say, I have a piece of thee here not unworthy of thy being now. — Leigh Hunt

'Thelma & Louise' really hit a nerve, and I loved that movie. — Richard LaGravenese