74 Quotes by Sylvain Neuvel

Here the aversion to decision-making is reinforced by a phenomenon called reactance: when we feel that someone, or something, is threatening or eliminating our behavioural freedom, even just limiting our options, our innate reaction is to try to re-establish that freedom.

While I am reasonably confident you are not “the chosen one,” you are without doubt one who has been chosen.

People who owe me favors are called friends.

Believing you’re the only person with their head on straight is usually not a sign of good mental health.

Well, you, Rose Franklin, are made of the exact same stuff as the Pillars of Creation. No more. No less. That’s how special and insignificant you are.

It would make things easier for both of us, especially for you, if we could forgo the part of this conversation where you take me for a complete idiot...

What I am is very much a function of what I am not. If the “other” is the Muslim world, then I am the Judeo-Christian world. IF the other is from thousands of light-years away, I am simply human. Redefine alterity and you can erase boundaries.

The aesthetics aren’t merely a side note, they’re as important as anything else.

You will not die of pain, but you will never get used to it. Pain is unique in that it does not show habituation or neural adaptation, like smell, or touch.