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Crux

Ramez Naam

Top 10 Best Quotes

“The world has a very serious problem, my friend' Shiva went on. 'Poor children still die by their millions. Westerners and the global rich -- like me -- live in post-scarcity society, while a billion people struggle to get enough to eat. And we're pushing the planet towards a tipping point, where the corals die and the forests burn and life becomes much, much harder. We have the resources to solve those problems, even now, but politics and economics and nationalism all get in the way. If we could access all those minds, though...”

“Do you think that a billion people knowing your face makes you special? It doesn't.”

“The past was read-only.”

“But Nita had always seen having a child as selfish. Why bring another soul into this world, she'd say, when there are so many out there that need our help?”

“When had terrorists ever accomplished anything but to enrage people, drive them towards greater security, greater sacrifice of freedom? They only gave their oppressors more excuses for oppression. And the oppressors just drove the oppressed further towards violent rebellion. Extremists on both sides gave power to the very forces they fought against.”

“Luxuries and indulgences were distractions from true greatness, tawdry and ephemeral baubles that dissipated energy that could be directed toward more meaningful and durable accomplishments in the world around him.”

“And Kade understood why. They were a tribal species. They’d evolved in a world where a few dozen men and women made up a tribe, and virtually all others were enemies, threats. They lacked the cognitive capabilities necessary to collaborate on this scale. They’d done their best with democracy, with capitalism, but those had reached their limit long ago. They’d been corrupted, twisted to the interests of a few individuals, when the greatest problems the world faced were problems of collective interest. He”

“You’re just a small piece. Death doesn’t matter. The whole lives on.”

“You could have done this the easy way Jade," Lo Prang told her [Sam]. "I meant what I told you. If you joined my household, you'd be happy." He gestured with his cuffed hands towards his head. "A little tweak here and there. All this stress? All this hardship? I could have taken care of whatever problem you have. And you'd have contentment, the satisfaction of having a purpose in life, of knowing what it was, of having a master who loved you." Sam stared at Lo Prang and shook her head. Lo Prang smiled. "Trust me, Jade. I've never had happier staff than I do now. They come to me willingly, for what I can give them, for the satisfaction, the peace and contentment. Even the whores are happy." Sam shuddered. "There are more important things than happiness," she told the man. "Doing the right thing. Doing what matters". Lo Prang smiled at her. "The right thing? What matters? Those are just patterns in your brain, Jade. A few tweaks, and your right thing would be mine." "Not in my lifetime," Sam told him. Lo Prang shrugged. "You'll change your mind one day. I'll be waiting.”

“When you suffer, Ananda had told him, When you rage. When you weep. When you crave. That is when you must still your mind.”

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