Scott Westerfeld Quotes

My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me.

I think the human mind is fascinating. I love figuring out why people are doing what they do.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.

I like to think I'm not a narcissist, but truth be told, we all have those sides to our character.

If somebody doesn't have enough judgment to be able to look at plastic surgery and realize how phony it is, then they can't be helped.

Thought once awakened does not again slumber.

I have never been able to bear people who are obsessed with beauty.

It's the human condition. We gravitate to what's easy, things that are comfortable, convenient, pain-free, self-serving.

In Madeleine's face was a stupidity Mitchell had never seen before. It was the stupidity of all normal people. It was the stupidity of the fortunate and the beautiful, of everybody who got what they wanted in life and so remained unremarkable.

At first it upset me to realize how many people are, at heart, selfish. Now I take that in stride, but people's loneliness still gets to me.

I played Lucifer once, which is sort of a difficult character to research. I thought to myself, "We all have the potential to be selfish, to be cruel - at least to think evil thoughts, even if we don't ever act out on them. Even if we don't ever think we behave badly, we probably do more than we realize."

I'm very selfish! I'm only thinking about how I would look in clothes, and not how we as a society might appear in those clothes.

Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church...so long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living. Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right. Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want to be saved from the penalty of their sin. Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.

Rules are invented for lazy people who don't want to think for themselves.

Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.

I was sorry for her; I was amazed, disgusted at her heartless vanity; I wondered why so much beauty should be given to those who made so bad a use of it, and denied to some who would make it a benefit to both themselves and others. But, God knows best, I concluded. There are, I suppose, some men as vain, as selfish, and as heartless as she is, and, perhaps, such women may be useful to punish them.

I think that in general it is a good plan occasionally to bear in mind the fact that people were in the habit of dreaming before there was such a thing as psychoanalysis.

Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don’t know anyone on Earth who doesn’t, but I do find it funny. I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It’s not me being humble. I just think it’s weird.

Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.

People are selfish. But they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened. That’s why this is such a crucial time. We can go in either direction. But if we don’t make a choice soon, it will be too late to turn things around. I think people are willing to make the right choice. But they need leadership. They’re hungry for leadership.

Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.

She that paints her Face, thinks of her Tail.

when the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.