WIST Quotations

Butler, Octavia -- Adulthood Rites, Part 2, ch. 15 (1988)

Dave — Thu, 27 May 2021 14:41:37 +0000

Sometimes it’s a good thing to scare people. Sometimes fear is all that will keep them from doing stupid things.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Adulthood Rites, Part 2, ch. 15 (1988)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Imago, ch. 2, sec. 9 (1989)

Dave — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:24:12 +0000

Helpless lust and unreasoning anxiety were just part of growing up.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Imago, ch. 2, sec. 9 (1989)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Kindred, ch. 4, sec. 6 (1979)

Dave — Thu, 13 May 2021 21:38:22 +0000

His father wasn’t the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. He wasn’t a monster at all. Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Kindred, ch. 4, sec. 6 (1979)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Sower, ch. 9, epigraph (1993)

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 02:01:47 +0000

All struggles
Are essentially
power struggles.
Who will rule,
Who will lead,
Who will define,
refine,
confine,
design,
Who will dominate.
All struggles
Are essentially
power struggles,
and most
are no more intellectual
than two rams
knocking their heads together.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Sower, ch. 9, epigraph (1993)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Sower, ch. 10 (1993)

Dave — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 15:56:15 +0000

Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Sower, ch. 10 (1993)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Sower, ch. 11 (1993)

Dave — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 13:53:16 +0000

“When it comes to strangers with guns,” I told her, “I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust.”

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Sower, ch. 11 (1993)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Sower, ch. 2 (1993)

Dave — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 20:43:00 +0000

A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of superperson. A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Sower, ch. 2 (1993)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Talents, ch. 11, epigraph (1998)

Dave — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 23:45:33 +0000

Choose your leaders
     with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
     is to be controlled
     by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
     is to be led
     by the opportunists
     who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
     is to offer up
     your most precious treasures
     to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
     is to ask
     to be lied to.
To be led by a tyrant
     is to sell yourself
     and those you love
     into slavery.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 11, epigraph (1998)
(Source)

The epigraph is cited to the in-fiction Earthseed: The Books of the Living.

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Talents, ch. 12, epigram (1998)

Dave — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:19:39 +0000

Beware:
Ignorance
Protects itself
Ignorance
Promotes suspicion.
Suspicion
Engenders fear.
Fear quails,
Irrational and blind,
Or fear looms,
Defiant and closed.
Blind, closed,
Suspicious, afraid,
Ignorance
Protects itself,
And protected,
Ignorance grows.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 12, epigram (1998)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Talents, ch. 13, epigram (1998)

Dave — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:51:55 +0000

When vision fails
Direction is lost.

When direction is lost
Purpose may be forgotten.

When purpose is forgotten
Emotion rules alone.

When emotion rules alone,
Destruction … destruction.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 13, epigram (1998)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Talents, ch. 18, epigram (1998)

Dave — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 14:11:41 +0000

Beware:
All too often,
We say
What we hear others say.
We think
What we’re told that we think.
We see
What we’re permitted to see.
Worse!
We see what we’re told that we see.
Repetition and pride are the keys to this.
To hear and to see
Even an obvious lie
Again
And again and again
May be to say it,
Almost by reflex
Then to defend it
Because we’ve said it
And at last to embrace it
Because we’ve defended it
And because we cannot admit
That we’ve embraced and defended
An obvious lie.

Thus, without thought,
Without intent,
We make
Mere echoes
Of ourselves —
And we say
What we hear others say.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 18, epigram (1998)
(Source)

Internally cited to the book's scripture, Earthseed: The Books of the Living,, and to a poem, "Warrior," written by the protagonist's uncle, Marcos Duran.

Butler, Octavia -- Parable of the Talents, ch. 19, epigram (1998)

Dave — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:17:57 +0000

All religions are ultimately cargo cults. Adherents perform required rituals, follow specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally gifted with desired rewards — long life, honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, victory over opponents, immortality after death, any desired rewards.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 19, epigram (1998)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- The Parable of the Talents, ch. 20, epigraph (1998)

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 22:50:38 +0000

Do you believe?
Belief will not save you.
Only actions
Guided and shaped
By belief and knowledge
Will save you.
Belief
Initiates and guides action —
Or it does nothing.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
The Parable of the Talents, ch. 20, epigraph (1998)
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2026 19:09:39 +0000

I mean there’s no single answer that will solve all our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers — at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine

Dave — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:09:35 +0000

I wanted to understand the lies that people have to tell themselves when they either quietly or joyfully watch their neighbors ruined, spirited away, killed. Different versions of this horror have happened again and again in history. They’re still happening in places like Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor, wherever one group of people permits its leaders to convince them that for their own protection, for the safety of their families and the security of their country, they must get their enemies, those alien others who until now were their neighbors.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine

Dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:39:47 +0000

Wishful thinking is no more help in predicting the future than fear, superstition or depression.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Essay (2000-05), “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” Essence Magazine
(Source)

Butler, Octavia -- Kindred, ch. 4, sec. 6 (1979)

Dave — Thu, 20 May 2021 18:12:00 +0000

“He’s a fair man.”
I looked at him, startled.
“I said fair,” he repeated. “Not likable.”

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Kindred, ch. 4, sec. 6 (1979)
(Source)