Quotes by John Christopher

About John Christopher:

Sam Youd was a British writer, best known for science fiction under the pseudonym John Christopher, including the novels The Death of Grass, The Possessors, and the young-adult novel series The Tripods. He won the Guardian Prize in 1971 and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1976.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

He said, speaking more to himself than to me: 'It was knowledge I sought. Knowledge which is clean and pure, far above the cheating and deceiving in which most men spend their lives.' And do you not find it,' I asked, 'this knowledge which you prize?...

John Christopher

I think before I act---and then think again. I am not entirely a coward, but I do not lose myself in action as you do.

John Christopher

People may be persuaded that the machine is doing good. In fact, good is only capable of being done on a small scale. Evil is more versatile. You can hate those you have never seen, all the vast multitudes of them, but you can only love those you kno...

John Christopher

Morality, for all the conditioning to which the human mind has been and is subjected, is always a personal choice in the last analysis.

John Christopher

You would always beat me; not so much because you are a better fighter as because you will not accept defeat.

John Christopher

A man faced death, but when death drew back forgot it until the next time.

John Christopher

In the realm of dream and imagination all men are equal.

John Christopher

What men do matters more than what they know.

John Christopher

It is because they are so strong that she hides her feelings.

John Christopher

The order should not have been given,' she said. 'It was not done for the city but for your private ends.' I shook my head. 'There is no difference.' You believe that?' A Prince must, or he is no Prince.

John Christopher

And though I remember her name I cannot recall her face. All things pass.

John Christopher

What tricks the mind is what the mind is glad to be tricked by.

John Christopher

Truth does not surround itself with lies.

John Christopher

His anger was as great as mine, but hot where mine was cold.

John Christopher

I was remembering the things we had done together, the times we had had. It would have been pleasant to preserve that comradeship in the days that came after. Pleasant, but alas, impossible. That which had brought us together had gone, and now our pa...

John Christopher

We all have to learn to live with our losses, and to use our regrets to spur us on in the future.

John Christopher

Fritz was melancholic by nature, and could tolerate his own gloom. I do not think this is so with you, who are sanguine and impatient. In your case, remorse and despondency could be crippling.

John Christopher

Some people are oil and water.

John Christopher

Before you have faith you must believe, and before you believe there must be evidence of some sort to persuade the mind. Faith is remembering that evidence and holding to it against all that seems to challenge or contradict it.

John Christopher

Even if it is nonsense, it is often useful to know what kind of nonsense men believe.

John Christopher

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Christopher
  • DescriptionBritish writer
  • AliasesChristopher Samuel Youd; John Christopher
  • BornApril 16, 1922
  • DiedFebruary 3, 2012
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter
  • WorksThe Tripods; The Guardians