John C. Wright Quotes

• Greek myths are heroic, noble and tragic; but the American Dream is heroic, comical, and uplifting. Americans are a people in whom overweening ambition is rewarded, not punished. The Wright Brothers did not have their wings melt when they flew too high. Perhaps their wings were more soundly built than those of Icarus.

  John C. Wright

  Uplifting, Dream, Brother

  18 Copy quote

• One of the things that made me suffer no regret when I was called away from the cramped intellectual jail of atheism into a wider and more wonderful world, was my growing conviction that my fellow atheists were shallow, men without insight into real human nature.

  John C. Wright

  Atheist, Regret, Real

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• If atheism solved all human woe, then the Soviet Union would have been an empire of joy and dancing bunnies, instead of the land of corpses.

  John C. Wright

  Atheist, Land, Dancing

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• Men's souls are crooked and unsound things, not good materials out of which to build friendships, families, households, cities, civilizations. But good or no, these things must be built, and we must craft them with the materials at hand, and make as strong and stubborn redoubt as we can make, lest the horrors of the Night should triumph over us, not in some distant age to come, but now.

  John C. Wright

  Strong, Night, Men

  6 Copy quote

• A wasteland is a confrontation to a man of stature: an empty place, a gauntlet thrown down in challenge and defiance. A place like that cries out to be conquered and civilised.

  John C. Wright

  Men, Challenges, Empty Places

  John C. Wright (2012). “The Hermetic Millennia”, p.116, Macmillan

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• I can't wait to get my memory back. It sounds like I am a really cool person

  John C. Wright

  Memories, Waiting, Sound

  John C. Wright (2006). “Fugitives of Chaos”, p.72, Macmillan

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• What would the world be like if you had to develop a power yourself before you could use it? Just as a silly example: How would the comment section on YouTube change if, to use it, you had to have the schooling necessary to have a basic understanding of how computers and the internet work? More seriously, would anyone smart enough to know how to design and build a tank, or a laser guided anti-aircraft missile, or a computer and video editing software be stupid enough to join ISIS? In fact, if such knowledge was required—would it even be possible for there to be standing armies?

  John C. Wright

  Stupid, Smart, Silly

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• If Vulcans had a church, they’d be Catholics.

  John C. Wright

  Catholic, Church, Ifs

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• I did not call for the extermination of people, but of ideas.

  John C. Wright

  Ideas, People, Extermination

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• The future did not arrive.

  John C. Wright

  John C. Wright (2011). “Count to a Trillion”, p.1, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

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