691 Quotes by Neal Stephenson

Be as affronted as you please, just don’t volunteer anything. If you see what appears to be an opening in debate, remember that it was ingeniously laid down in front of you by Bolingbroke as coquettes drop handkerchiefs at the feet of men they would ensnare.

Put … the troll … down … and slowly back away.

But even if they did have that kind of money rattling around in their pockets, actually spending it would offend their native frugality.

They went inside. The young ones shuffled to a stop as their ironic sensibilities, which served them in lieu of souls, were jammed by a signal of overwhelming power.

Some of us, Daniel, are prone to a sort of melancholy, wherein we are tormented by phant'sies that other men are secretly plotting to do us injury. It is a pernicious state for a man to fall into.

It is exciting to discover electrons and figure out the equations that govern their movement; it is boring to use those principles to design electric can openers. From here on out, it's all can openers.

To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.

Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot.

You can say any sort of nonsense in Latin, and our feeble university men will be stunned, or at least profoundly confused. That’s how the popes have gotten away with peddling bad religion for so long, they simply say it in Latin.