Final Exam Quotes 1
Final Exam Potential Quotations List
Fall 2010—Dr. Halbert
The following quotes were submitted by the class as candidates for the exam. The ten quotes on
the exam will come from this list. You will need to identify the author, the title, and give an
explanation of the significance of five of them. If you can identify the author and title of other
quotes, you may do so for extra credit.
QUOTE: “Why let them order you about? Why let them tell you to hurry and scurry like ants or
maggots? Take your time! Saunter a while! Enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the breeze, let life carry
you at your pace! Don’t be slaves of time, it’s a helluva way to die, slowly, by degrees”
SOURCE: Harlan Ellison.“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman Pg. 766
QUOTE: Come on, you apes! You wanta live forever?
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein. Starship Troopers. Chapter 1 Page 1
QUOTE: What is the moral difference, if any, between the soldier and the civilian?
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, pg. 26
QUOTE: Then we all went back into the mountains and spent thirteen days finding them,
working with copters overhead to direct us and all the best communication gear to help us and
our instructors in powered command suits to supervise and to check rumors - because the Mobile
Infantry doesn’t abandon its own while there is any thin shred of hope.
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, Pg. 49
QUOTE: “I made a very important discovery at Camp Currie. Happiness consists in getting
enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. All the wealthy, unhappy people you’ve ever met take
sleeping pills; Mobile Infantrymen don’t need them. Give a cap trooper a bunk and time to sack
out in it and he’s as happy as a worm in an apple – asleep”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein. Starship Troopers. Pg. 52
QUOTE: “Don’t you know about sergeants?”
“Well… I’m learning.”
“They don’t have mothers. Just ask any trained private.” He blew smoke toward us. “They
reproduce by fission… like all bacteria.”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlen. Starship Troopers. Pg. 53.
QUOTE: War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a
purpose.
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, Ch 5 p. 56
Final Exam Quotes 2
QUOTE: “There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein. Starship Troopers. Pg. 61
QUOTE: We make war as personal as a punch in the nose.
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, Pg. 80
QUOTE: This is a very personal relationship, ‘value,’ has two factors for a human being: first,
what he can do with a thing, its use to him … and second, what he must do to get it, its cost to
him.
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, pg. 93
QUOTE: I had passed the hump and it was all downhill. My kit felt lighter and I was no longer worried.
SOURCE: Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein, pg. 96
QUOTE: “Suppose you merely scolded your puppy, never punished him, let him go on making
messes in the house… and occasionally locked him up in an outbuilding but soon let him back
into the house with a warning not to do it again. The one day you notice that he is now a grown
dog and still not housebroken—whereupon you whip out a gun and shoot him dead. Comment ,
please?”
“Why… that’s the craziest way to raise a dog I ever heard of!”
“I agree. Or a child. Whose fault would it be?”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlen. Starship Troopers. Pg. 122-23.
QUOTE: “But, less than a week later when we had made one combat drop with them, we were
full-fledged Roughnecks, members of the family, called by our first names, chewed out on
occasion without any feeling on either side that we were less than blood brothers thereby,
borrowed from and lent to, included in bull sessions and privileged to express our own silly
opinions with complete freedom—and have them slapped down just as freely.”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, “Starship Troopers,” page 140.
QUOTE: “Civilians are like beans; you buy ‘em as needed for any job which merely requires
skill and savvy.”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, “Starship Troopers,” page 208.
QUOTE: “Perhaps some race that never bothers to rescue an individual may exploit this human
trait to wipe us out. The Skinnies have such a trait only slightly and the Bugs don’t seem to have
it at all – nobody ever saw a Bug come to the aid of another because he was wounded…” (p.
223)
Final Exam Quotes 3
SOURCE: Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
QUOTE: The Major added, “Can anyone define why there has never been a revolution against
our system? Despite the fact that every government in history has had such? Despite the
notorious fact that complaints are loud and unceasing?”
One of the older cadets took a crack at it. “Sir, revolution is impossible.”
“Yes, but why?”
“Because revolution—armed uprising—requires not only dissatisfaction but
aggressiveness. A revolutionist has to be willing to fight and die—or he's just a parlor pink. If
you separate out the aggressive ones and make them the sheep dogs, the sheep will never give
you trouble.”
SOURCE: Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers(P235)
QUOTE: WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
SOURCE: George Orwell. 1984. Chapter 1 Page 4
QUOTE: “And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was
true now was true from everlasting to everlasting.”
SOURCE: Geroge Orwell. 1984. Pg. 36
QUOTE: Perhaps “friend” was not exactly the right word. You did not have friends nowadays,
you had comrades; but there were some comrades whose society was pleasanter than that of
others.
SOURCE: George Orwell, 1984, part I Ch. 5 p. 48
QUOTE: If there is hope, it lies in the proles.
SOURCE: George Orwell. 1984. pg.71
QUOTE: It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and
insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listnessness.
SOURCE: Nineteen Eighty- Four, George Orwell, pg.76
QUOTE: Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else
follows.
SOURCE: George Orwell. 1984. Centennial Edition pg. 83
QUOTE: They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a workmate, a hunt for a lost bicycle
Final Exam Quotes 4
pump, the expression on a long-dead sister's face, the swirls of dust on a windy morning seventy years
ago; but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision.
SOURCE: 1984, George Orwell, pg. 95
QUOTE: No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred.
SOURCE: George Orwell, 1984, part II Ch. 2 p. 126
QUOTE: It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the
Party’s control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important
was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed
into war fever and leader worship.
SOURCE: George Orwell, 1984, Pg. 135
QUOTE: As O'Brien passed the telescreen a thought seemed to strike him. He stopped, turned
aside, and pressed a switch on the wall. There was a sharp snap. The voice had stopped.
Julia uttered a tiny sound, a sort of squeak of surprise. Even in the midst of his panic,
Winston was too much taken aback to be able to hold his tongue.
“You can turn it off!” he said.
“Yes,” said O'Brien, “we can turn it off. We have that privilege.”
SOURCE: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four(P173)
QUOTE: You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?” “Four!
Five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!”
SOURCE: George Orwell, 1984, page 206
QUOTE: “Write it down and I’ll sign it – anything! Not room 101!” (p. 243)
SOURCE: Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
QUOTE: “But how can you stop people remembering things?...It is involuntary. It is outside
oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!” (p. 256)
SOURCE: Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
QUOTE: Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.
SOURCE: George Orwell. 1984. Centennial Edition pg. 255
QUOTE: But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of
power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always at every moment, there will
be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a
picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.
Final Exam Quotes 5
SOURCE: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, pg. 277
QUOTE: “...We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them. Do you understand what
I mean by that?”
SOURCE: George Orwell, 1984, Pg. 261
QUOTE: “You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged
by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely
malleable.”
SOURCE: George Orwell, “1984,” page 269.
QUOTE: “The Heretical though would be unpunished, unrepented, out of their reach forever.
They would have blown a hole in their own perfection. To die hating them, that was freedom.”
SOURCE: George Orwell, “1984,” page 281.
QUOTE: I betrayed you, she said badly. I betrayed you, he said.
SOURCE: George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Pg. 302
QUOTE: “Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me---“
SOURCE: George Orwell. 1984 Pg 304
QUOTE: “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
SOURCE: Geroge Orwell. 1984. Pg. 308
QUOTE: staring at the chessboard, for the first time in his life, feels good. It feels pleasurable,
SOURCE: Michael Chabon. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Chapter 44 Page 398
QUOTE:Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me.
I have seen its true face
S page 1 chapter 1
QUOTE: Because There Is Good and There Is evil, and evil Must Be Punished even in The Face
Of Armageddon I Shall not Compromise in This
SOURCE: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. Watchmen,. Ch. 1. Pg. 24
QUOTE: You’re Drftin’ outta touch, doc.
SOURCE: Alan Moore.Watchmen. Chapter 2 Page 15
QUOTE: Heard joke once. Man goes to doctor. Says He’s depressed. Says life seems hard and
cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and
Final Exam Quotes 6
uncertain. Doctor says “Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and
see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. Says, “But, Doctor… I am Pagliacci”
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. CH2. Pg 27.
QUOTE: 42nd Street: Women's breasts draped across every billboard, every display, littering the
walkway. Was offered Swedish love and French love...but not American love. American love;
like coke in green glass bottles...they don't make it anymore.
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. (Chapter II, P25)
QUOTE: “SOME NICE FLOWERS.”
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. Pg. 6
QUOTE: Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. Perhaps it simply is, has been,
will always be there… a clock without a craftsman.
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen Ch. 4 pg. 28
QUOTE: A world grows up around me. Am I shaping it, or do its predetermined contours guide my
hand?
SOURCE: Watchmen, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, pg.27
QUOTE - When I had cut it enough, it didn’t look like a women anymore.
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen page 10 chapter 6
QUOTE: “NONE OF YOU UNDERSTAND. I’M NOT LOCKED UP IN HERE WITH YOU.
YOU’RE LOCKED UP IN HERE WITH ME.”
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons., Watchmen, Chapter VI pg. 13
QUOTE: Looked at the sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The
cold, suffocating dark goes on forever, and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better
to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves; go into
oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after
staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose.
SOURCE: Alan Moore, The Watchmen, Ch. 6 pg. 26
QUOTE: To distil so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold…
That is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermo-dynamic miracle.
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. CH9 Pg. 27.
QUOTE: “Don’t you see the futility of asking me to save a world that I no longer have any stake
in?”
Final Exam Quotes 7
SOURCE: Alan Moore, Watchmen, Book IX Pg. 8
QUOTE: “…And this world’s smartest man means no more to me than does its smartest termite”
SOURCE: Alan Moore/ Dave Gibbons. Watchman Chapter 12 of Pg 18
QUOTE: ‘I like the cover; he said. ‘Don’t Panic. It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing
anybody’s said to me all day.’
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, pg. 49
QUOTE: McDonald’s, he thought. There is no longer any such thing as a McDonald’s
hamburger.
He passed out. When he came round a second later he found he was sobbing for his mother.
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, pg. 57
QUOTE: Mostly Harmless
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, pg. 62
QUOTE: Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as
it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we know exactly why the bowl
of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we
do now.
SOURCE: Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Pg. 91.
QUOTE: “Its crew of four were ill at east knowing that they had been brought together not of
their own volition or by simple coincidence, but by some curious perversion of physics—as if
relationships between people were susceptible to the same laws that governed the relationships
between atoms and molecules.”
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” page 110.
QUOTE: “what are you supposed to do if you are a manically depressed robot? No, don’t bother
to answer that, I’m fifty thousand times more intelligent than you and even I don’t know the
answer. It gives me a headache just trying think down your level.”
SOURCE: Douglas Adams. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Pg. 122
QUOTE: And the next thing that happened after that was that the Heart of Gold continued on its
way perfectly normally with a rather fetchingly redesigned interior. It was somewhat larger, and
done out in delicate pastel shades of green and blue. In the center a spiral staircase, leading
nowhere in particular, stood in a spray of ferns and yellow flowers and next to it a stone sundial
pedestal housed the main computer terminal. Cunningly deployed lighting and mirrors created
the illusion of standing in a conservatory overlooking a wide stretch of exquisitely manicured
garden. Around the periphery of the conservatory area stood marble-topped tables on intricately
Final Exam Quotes 8
beautiful wrought-iron legs. As you gazed into the polished surface of the marble the vague
forms of instruments became visible, and as you touched them the instruments materialized
instantly under your hands. Looked at from the correct angles the mirrors appeared to reflect all
the required data read-outs, though it was far from clear where they were reflected from. It was
in fact sensationally beautiful.
Relaxing in a wickerwork sun chair, Zaphod Beeblebrox said, “What the hell
happened?”
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(P132)
QUOTE: The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely
according to these creatures’ plans.
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Pg. 157
QUOTE: “Forty-two.”
SOURCE: Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Pg. 181
QUOTE: “I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known
what the question is.” (p. 182)
SOURCE: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
QUOTE:
He grabbed the second Kill-O-Zap gun, blasted a perfectly harmless accounting
computer and rushed out into the corridor, followed by the others. He very nearly blasted the hell
out of an aircar that stood waiting for them a few yards away. The aircar was empty, but Arthur
recognized it as belonging to Slartibartfast.
It had a not from him pinned to part of its sparse instrument panel. The note had an arrow
drawn on it, pointing at one of the controls.
It said, This is probably the best button to press.
SOURCE: Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(P211)
QUOTE: “It committed suicide.”
SOURCE: Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Pg. 214
QUOTE: “If you do not succeeded, try, try again”
SOURCE: Andrew Niccol. Gattaca
QUOTE: “I got the better end of the deal. I only lent you my body - you lent me your dream.”
SOURCE: Andrew Niccol. Gattaca
QUOTE: You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for
the swim back.
Final Exam Quotes 9
SOURCE: Andrew Niccol. Gattaca. 1997
QUOTE: It is the law of nature to eliminate everything that is harmful and unfit to live, it would
mean the end of nature itself if new categories of the harmful or unfit-to-live could not be found.
SOURCE: Hannah Arendt .Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government. Textbook Page
854
QUOTE: like a mighty tentacle seizes you on all sides as in a vise and from whose grip you are
powerless to tear yourself away; you must either surrender or make up your mind to utter defeat.
SOURCE: Hannah Arendt. Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government. Pg. 859
QUOTE: “The history we read,” writes Professor Barraclough, himself trained as a mediaevalist,
“though based on facts, is, strictly speaking, not factual at all, but a series of accepted
judgements.”
SOURCE: E.H. Carr. The Historian and His Facts. Page 679 textbook