344 Quotes by Richard Powers

An old man, I want only peace. The things of this world mean nothing. I know no good way to live and I can’t stop getting lost in my thoughts, my ancient forests. The wind that waves the pines loosens my belt. The mountain moon lights me as I play my lute.

She has seen dieback across the West. Aspens are withering. Grazed on by everything with hooves, cut off from rejuvenating fire, whole groves are vanishing. Now she sees a forest, spreading across these mountains since before humans left Africa, giving way to second homes. She sees it in one great glimpse of flashing gold: trees and humans, at war over the land and water and atmosphere. And she can hear, louder than the quaking leaves, which side will lose by winning.

She’s an animal, a mere avatar. The other woman, too – stuff-imprisoned spirit, deluded into thinking it’s autonomous. And yet conjoined, linked to each other, a pair of local gods who have lived and felt all things.

The law is simply human will, written down.

Watching the man, hard-of-hearing, hard-of-speech Patty learns that real joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a breeze. As certain as weather coming from the west, the things people know for sure will change. There is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and looking.

We’re cashing in a billion years of planetary savings bonds and blowing it on assorted bling.

Girls doing science are like bears riding bikes. Possible, but freakish.

Chance was just an order that you hadn’t yet perceived.

The understory fills up with tracks like longhand accusations scribbled on the snow.