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In the eighteenth century it was often convenient to regard man as a clockwork automaton. In the nineteenth century, with Newtonian physics pretty well assimilated and a lot of work in thermodynamics going on, man was looked on as a heat engine, about 40 per cent efficient. Now in the twentieth century, with nuclear and subatomic physics a going thing, man had become something which absorbs X-rays, gamma rays and neutrons.

— Thomas Pynchon

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More quotes by Thomas Pynchon

Behind the hieroglyphic streets there would either be a transcendent meaning, or only the earth.

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)

It is usually not wise to discuss matters of costume with people like this, — politics or religion being far safer topicks.

Mason & Dixon (1997)

All investigations of Time, however sophisticated or abstract, have at their true base the human fear of mortality.

Against the Day (2006)

What are the stars but points in the body of God where we insert the healing needles of our terror and longing?

Gravity's Rainbow (1973)

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

All Thomas Pynchon quotes →

Attribution

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