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“What you propose to do today is to bring civilization to a lawless corner of the world. I know that you claim more modest ambitions. But when the protection of law is extended to the innocent and weak, that is civilization. Now I hold that in the natural state, there are only two kinds of people in the world—the men with guns, and the victims. And the one kind feeds off the other.”

— Michael Swanwick In the Drift (1985)

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More quotes by Michael Swanwick

What the common man calls Evil, he once told me, is nothing more than the fear of one’s own potential.

Jack Faust (1997)

Everyone dies—the rearrangement of when is a matter of only statistical interest.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Indeed, what is magic but impossible science?

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Money can always be traced. It leaves a trail of slime behind it wherever it goes.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

This is the price you must pay for knowledge: You must understand and acknowledge its consequences.

Jack Faust (1997)

All Michael Swanwick quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Swanwick (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.