Best Michael Crichton Quotes 💬

Some of the best quotes from Crichton’s books and his life, in general, are discussed below. Many of these were included in unusual, fantastic circumstances and plots but also apply to everyday life more generally. 

Life and Existence 

What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There’s no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told-and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs.’

This thought-provoking quote is found in Michael Crichton’s sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World. Here, Crichton is challenging readers to consider their self-awareness and their perception of what it means to be sentient. It also challenges readers’ beliefs about conformity, freedom, and war. 

God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs.

This famous quote from Jurassic Park presents the basic plot of the novel in clear, humorous language. It takes a deadpan approach to the situation while alluding to the incredible arrogance of the InGen scientists who believed they could recreate, without consequences, that which “God” killed. 

No one escapes from life alive.

“No one escapes from life alive” is a quote from Crichton’s novel Congo. Here, he uses dark humor to describe the inescapable nature of death. Everyone dies, he alludes to in this quote, and there is no way to make it through life without eventually meeting that fate. 

All major changes are like death. You can’t see to the other side until you are there.

In this clever quote about death, the speaker says that death, like all changes, is unknowable until you’re on the other side. No one knows what death is going to be like till they’re there, just like one can’t know what the effects of a particular choice are going to be until they’re in motion.

Beliefs 

I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.

This brief quote is attributed to Michael Crichton and ironically addresses certainty in the contemporary world. Everyone has beliefs that they’re “certain” about or stances about the world they are immovable about. The quote suggests that people are far too staunch in their beliefs and should have more wiggle room to analyze why they think the way they do. 

Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.

In this short quote from the book State of Fear, Michael Crichton again alludes to his opinion on beliefs, prejudice, and certainty. If you believe something in the “absence of evidence,” Crichton writes, it’s called “prejudice.” This is a challenging opinion, one that leaves a great deal of room for debate.

The Earth 

You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old…Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the Earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in Arctic ice.

In this famous quote, Crichton writes about the age of the Earth, its strength, and how his speaker believes that no matter what happens on Earth, life will survive. It’s incredibly vain, he asserts at the beginning of the quote, to think that human beings have the strength or knowledge to “destroy the planet.” The Earth is incredibly old and will outlive all human beings throughout time. 

This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try. We’ve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we’re gone tomorrow, the Earth will not miss us.”

The writer also used these lines in the same passage (as above) to discuss the Earth’s age in comparison to the brevity of human existence. He alludes to the arrogance of any belief system that claims to fully comprehend how old the Earth is and how small a role human beings play in it. If we are “gone tomorrow the Earth will not miss us,” he concludes.

Success and Failure

All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don’t you take it away from yourself.

This quote from The Lost World inspires readers to promote themselves and, within their assessment of their accomplishments, take nothing away from what they’re done in their lives. It’s important not to allow one’s issues with self-worth or self-love to influence their beliefs about their success. 

It’s hard to decide who’s truly brilliant; it’s easier to see who’s driven, which in the long run may be more important.

In this quote from Congo, Crichton discusses success, intelligence, passion, and drive. He suggests that the latter is the most important, more so than “brilliance” even. If you’re driven, it doesn’t matter what you start off with. It only matters that you keep pursuing what you care about. 

FAQs