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The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4) QUOTES

The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4) QUOTES

1 " Bureaucracies excel at performing tasks that must be done consistently whether the people assigned to them are brilliant performers or bumbling fools. You can’t always count on having Albert Einstein in the patent office, so you design its procedures to work even if you hire Mr. Bean by mistake. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

2 " There are two types of people in this world,” Pete volunteers helpfully, “those who think there are only two types of people in the world, and everybody else. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

3 " You win some, you lose some. And when you lose, you have to pull yourself together and go back for more. Otherwise, the other side wins by default. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

4 " Any sufficiently advanced lingerie is indistinguishable from a lethal weapon. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

5 " As far as my fellow students go, I’m one of the two dangerous rebels who turned up in office casual; the rest are so desperately sober that if you could bottle them you could put the Betty Ford Clinic out of business. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

6 " There is good management and bad management: good management is like air—you don’t know it’s there until it’s gone away. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

7 " Are they by any chance a quiverfull ministry?” Pete’s lips thin. “Yes.” The word “quiverfull” sets my alarm bells ringing, and clearly upsets Mo. It goes back to Psalm 127, which refers to having many children as having a full quiver. They’re arrows for the Lord, and a number of evangelical churches have adopted the theory that you can never have too much ammunition. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

8 " Although now that I'm in middle management I'm supposed to call it "refactoring the strategic value proposition in real time with agile implementation,” or, if I’m being honest, “making it up as I go along. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

9 " They’re vermin, Bob. They’ve been driven inland by over-fishing and now they’re spreading disease, attacking waste collections, keeping people awake in the small hours, and carrying away stray cats and small dogs. Next thing you know they’ll be cloning credit cards and planning bank robberies.” “Yes, but…” I see no point in arguing; it’s not as if I like seagulls. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

10 " Finally, they began to investigate the prime minister, Harold Wilson. Wilson, Wright was convinced, was a KGB agent.” I’m nodding along like a metronome at this point. “There was a group, a cabal if you like, of MI5 officers. About thirty of them. They actually planned a coup d’état in 1972. They "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

11 " (Fucking netbooks; you can’t even use one to beat an alien brain parasite to death without it breaking.) "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

12 " Mug of Joe,” grunts Johnny. “Mocha venti with an extra shot for me, no cream,” I add. “Anything else?” I shake my head and she wanders off. Johnny looks suspicious. “Since when do you speak Starbucks?” I shrug. “It’s not as if I can help it; they’ve got our office surrounded, and they don’t like it if you try to order in English.” We wait "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

13 " Hopefully we don’t end up as someone else’s dinner.” For a moment I feel a stab of remorse for the lamb: born into an infinite, hostile universe and destined from birth to be nothing more than fodder for uncaring alien intelligences vaster by far than it can comprehend. “’Scuse me, I’m having a Heather Mills moment here.” Mo "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

14 " We still have cultural attachés?” “We still have pulse-dialing electromechanical Strowger telephone exchanges in the basement”—Lockhart startles me by suddenly rattling off the correct but decades-obsolete terminology—“just in case we experience a need for such equipment. And you are now discovering just why we also have cultural attachés in the embassy in DC.” “Ri-ight.” I glance at the first boarding pass. “Hey, "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

15 " Our worshipers have met this British agent before. Do not attempt to convert him; bring him alive before Us. He will be of great service in the end times ahead.*** Schiller "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

16 " There are one and a half billion Muslims on this Earth. A billion and a half Chinese communists, a billion Indian Hindu elephant-worshippers. One point two billion Catholics, misled by the Vatican. And I’m afraid they’re all going to go to hell if we don’t manage to save them in time. This is a tragedy; the great, besetting tragedy of our age is that at least ninety-five percent of currently living humanity is going to burn in hell. To make matters worse, this is the most populous century ever—there are more than seven billion of us! We "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

17 " If you’re a humble believer set on doing your deity’s will, then what are you doing spending the take on Lamborghinis and single malt? "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

18 " ever since that time of unbound paranoia the one unbreakable law of the British secret services has been: Thou shalt not snoop on Number Ten. Because we are not in the business of generating policy—it’s not a task for which agencies like ours are suited, and in those countries where spooks set policy, it always ends in tears. We vet politicians on the way up—that’s an entirely different matter—but by the time they’re moving into Number Ten they should already be above suspicion; if they aren’t, we haven’t been doing our job properly. And "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

19 " Stuff that really will improve my survival prospects when the tentacles hit the pentacle. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)

20 " The knife-shaped thing sticking out of his throat is drinking greedily; one glance tells Johnny that the cop’s beyond help. There’s always a cost for using such occult weapons, and Johnny will pay it later, of that he is sure; but for now he’s simply relieved to still be alive. "

― Charles Stross , The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4)