Search quotes

Link	Quote	Author
b3053bd	There's a fire on the hillside just above Skyland and it's like to go wild if we	Charles Stross
053dd8b	Our new allies are weak and unreliable and mean us ill. We need a new kind of arsenal if we are to defend democracy and freedom, and the first step in rebuilding our defenses is to build a hypercomputing cloud in solar orbit, one powerful enough to summon the Lord of Sleep to lead us...	Charles Stross
025610f	But his former day job--he is still a vicar, and his bishop is remarkably reluctant to raise a fuss about his apparent conscription by a secret government agency devoted to issues which can best be described as ungodly (or worse, wrong godly)--taught him a lot about helping people.	Charles Stross
3079873	Bogons?" "Hypothetical particles of cluelessness. Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting the machinery work again."	Charles Stross
c6c2ea2	A powerful glamour has engulfed the United States of America. It's not the first time, of course--that nation is a shining temple to amnesia with its foundations built atop the bones of vanished empires	Charles Stross
364ecf9	Hi, I'm Bob Howard. I'm a computational demonologist and senior field agent working for an organization you don't know exists. My job involves a wide range of tasks, including: writing specifications for structured cabling runs in departmental offices; diving through holes in spacetime that lead to dead worlds and fighting off the things with too many tentacles and mouths that I find there; liaising with procurement officers to draft the fu..	Charles Stross
7adfc80	I wince at his casual disrespect as I follow Captain Perceval into the rear.	Charles Stross
b40c1aa	You're a grown-up, these days. You don't wear a kamikaze pilot's rising sun headband and a tee-shirt that screams DEBUG THIS! and you don't spend your weekends competing in extreme programming slams at a windy campsite near Frankfurt, but it's generally difficult for you to use any machine that doesn't have at least one compiler installed: In fact, you had to stick Python on your phone before you even opened its address book because not bei..	Charles Stross
234e7fb	But you're more at home with SQL than socialization: Innuendo wasn't a language they taught in CS lab.	Charles Stross
98ea67a	Rita stopped, suddenly acutely aware that while curiosity was her job, too much curiosity was reputedly felicidal:	Charles Stross
0e768a2	The IT worker has to know in their bones that if they make a mistake, things can go horribly wrong. Tension and cynicism are constant companions, along with camaraderie and competitiveness. It's a lot like being a spy, or necromancer. You don't get out much, and when you do it's usually at night.	Charles Stross
78c0fe8	I've suffered for what I know, so I'm not going to let you off the hook with a simple one-liner. I think you deserve a detailed explanation.	Charles Stross
0750163	Compliance with the mile-high stack of social expectations you grow up with as a girl turns out to be mandatory if you want to get ahead in business. Be blonde, be skinny, and don't forget to smile, bitch.	Charles Stross
85a87d6	One does not simply walk into Mordor these days; one drives a rented Cadillac Escalade the size of a county, shiny black and chrome, with a fake walnut dash, and enough black leather to clothe a battalion of Hell's Angels.	Charles Stross
57226c5	You have imposter syndrome," He says, "but paradoxically, that's often a sign of competence. Only people who understand their work well enough to be intimidated by it can be terrified by their own ignorance. It's the opposite of Dunning-Kruger syndrome, where the miserably incompetent think they're on top of the job because they don't understand it."	Charles Stross
7c7dd22	If an ancient horror invites you into its limousine at gunpoint--	Charles Stross
78be383	you can't learn from a fatal mistake.	Charles Stross
c1cf679	there's a point at which sufficient incompetence is malice.	Charles Stross
d4b593a	experience has taught me that it is best never knowingly to underestimate the lethality of a sufficiently determined butler.	Charles Stross
795ff78	Hello, Martin. What can I do for you?""Female human-sized."	Charles Stross
de9907f	Didn't I have you executed last week?""I very much doubt. It."	Charles Stross
739231d	Intelligence and infinite knowledge were not, it seemed, compatible with stable human existence.	Charles Stross
157319f	True revolutionary doctrine teaches that the only law is rationalism and dynamic optimism.	Charles Stross
b5a6c82	Ultimately, it was easier to change the subject than think the unthinkable.	Charles Stross
15ad4a6	The Cold War was all about who could build the biggest refrigerator, wasn't it?	Charles Stross
9b7a11c	You got overdraft at the mythology bank.	Charles Stross
8fbbee3	And that's when it turned intae the full-dress faeco-ventilatory intersection scene.	Charles Stross
9c495b3	Er, I can't confirm or deny, but that's a good guess.	Charles Stross
5db61de	I just don't like it, for extremely large values of don't and like.	Charles Stross
2fe317c	Lawyers do not mix with diplomacy.	Charles Stross
b94ef5a	Well then. Will the naysayers please leave the universe?	Charles Stross
a2cabbd	If I forget, then it might as well never have happened. Memory is liberty.	Charles Stross
7b3097e	I killed you! And you didn't even notice!	Charles Stross
d3d6584	You have an evil mind!""And this is a bad thing how, exactly?"	Charles Stross
a73ed70	Liz isn't simply not going by the book, she's just about throwing it in the shredder.	Charles Stross
870a53b	The number one crime in any age: offending the money.	Charles Stross
beab301	No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy, and time is the ultimate opponent.	Charles Stross
9f7125b	Little white lies shining like baby teeth in a shallow grave.	Charles Stross
568ebba	Truly the jaws of irony are agape!	Charles Stross
7536da6	Perforce, the family that preys together stays together.	Charles Stross
f24b504	I think we may be mistaking the elephant's tail for a bell-pull.	Charles Stross
ef9225c	Had enough of my poetry yet? That's why they pay me to fight demons instead.	Charles Stross
610dde8	Am I making myself clear?"I sit down again. "Yes, for very bureaucratic values of clear."	Charles Stross
ce89cbd	I don't hate him--he's just a bore but that isn't a capital offense. Usually.	Charles Stross

There's a fire on the hillside just above Skyland and it's like to go wild if we

Charles Stross

053dd8b

Our new allies are weak and unreliable and mean us ill. We need a new kind of arsenal if we are to defend democracy and freedom, and the first step in rebuilding our defenses is to build a hypercomputing cloud in solar orbit, one powerful enough to summon the Lord of Sleep to lead us...

Charles Stross

025610f

But his former day job--he is still a vicar, and his bishop is remarkably reluctant to raise a fuss about his apparent conscription by a secret government agency devoted to issues which can best be described as ungodly (or worse, wrong godly)--taught him a lot about helping people.

Charles Stross

3079873

Bogons?" "Hypothetical particles of cluelessness. Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting the machinery work again."

Charles Stross

c6c2ea2

A powerful glamour has engulfed the United States of America. It's not the first time, of course--that nation is a shining temple to amnesia with its foundations built atop the bones of vanished empires

Charles Stross

364ecf9

Hi, I'm Bob Howard. I'm a computational demonologist and senior field agent working for an organization you don't know exists. My job involves a wide range of tasks, including: writing specifications for structured cabling runs in departmental offices; diving through holes in spacetime that lead to dead worlds and fighting off the things with too many tentacles and mouths that I find there; liaising with procurement officers to draft the fu..

Charles Stross

7adfc80

I wince at his casual disrespect as I follow Captain Perceval into the rear.

Charles Stross

b40c1aa

You're a grown-up, these days. You don't wear a kamikaze pilot's rising sun headband and a tee-shirt that screams DEBUG THIS! and you don't spend your weekends competing in extreme programming slams at a windy campsite near Frankfurt, but it's generally difficult for you to use any machine that doesn't have at least one compiler installed: In fact, you had to stick Python on your phone before you even opened its address book because not bei..

Charles Stross

234e7fb

But you're more at home with SQL than socialization: Innuendo wasn't a language they taught in CS lab.

Charles Stross

98ea67a

Rita stopped, suddenly acutely aware that while curiosity was her job, too much curiosity was reputedly felicidal:

Charles Stross

0e768a2

The IT worker has to know in their bones that if they make a mistake, things can go horribly wrong. Tension and cynicism are constant companions, along with camaraderie and competitiveness. It's a lot like being a spy, or necromancer. You don't get out much, and when you do it's usually at night.

Charles Stross

78c0fe8

I've suffered for what I know, so I'm not going to let you off the hook with a simple one-liner. I think you deserve a detailed explanation.

Charles Stross

0750163

Compliance with the mile-high stack of social expectations you grow up with as a girl turns out to be mandatory if you want to get ahead in business. Be blonde, be skinny, and don't forget to smile, bitch.

Charles Stross

85a87d6

One does not simply walk into Mordor these days; one drives a rented Cadillac Escalade the size of a county, shiny black and chrome, with a fake walnut dash, and enough black leather to clothe a battalion of Hell's Angels.

Charles Stross

57226c5

You have imposter syndrome," He says, "but paradoxically, that's often a sign of competence. Only people who understand their work well enough to be intimidated by it can be terrified by their own ignorance. It's the opposite of Dunning-Kruger syndrome, where the miserably incompetent think they're on top of the job because they don't understand it."