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You’ve been competing against the past, and that’s a contest no one can win because the past has all the advantages. We’ve forgotten all its fiddling little drawbacks: the lice, the skin infections, the disgusting personal habits and the rest of it.

— John Brunner Timescoop (1969)

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More quotes by John Brunner

If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.

The Shockwave Rider (1975)

You have many years to live—do things you will be proud to remember when you're old.

Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Men change their gods, and when they have changed them often enough they cease to fear their power.

The Atlantic Abomination (1960)

If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism.

Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

—Among the other things lunatics make: their own version of truth.

Quicksand (1967)

All John Brunner quotes →

Attribution

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