The 10 Greatest Sci-Fi Book Quotes of the Last 25 Years, Ranked
Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel.
A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated.
Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point.
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Warning: Spoilers for all books discussed!
The 21st century began in 2001, and since then, the world has been treated to many a science fiction book that's bound to be remembered among the best that this era of speculative fiction has seen. Indeed, over the last 25 years, we've seen several exceptional writers deliver equally exceptional sci-fi masterpieces with some of the most inventive worldbuilding, the tightest plotting, and, of course, the most memorable quotes.
There are virtually infinite ways for a quote from a sci-fi book to be great. Perhaps it's a line deeply imbued with subtext and hidden meaning, a punchy opener that gets the reader instantly hooked, or a quote with a hard-hitting emotional effect. Regardless of all the reasons why they're brilliant, the best sci-fi book quotes of the last 25 years are a testament to how great sci-fi writing has been throughout the 21st century.
10 "Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind."
'The Fifth Season' (2015)
N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series made history by becoming the first book trilogy in history ever to have each of its installments win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in consecutive years. It all started with what many fans of the genre would agree is one of the best books written since 1990: The Fifth Season, one of the greatest science fantasy novels the world has ever seen.
This quote is spoken by Syenite, who has spent her whole time under the abusive control of the Fulcrum and is only beginning to find community and family for the first time in the pirate community of Meov. It's a quote that perfectly captures the themes of survival and displacement that make up the intellectual and emotional core of the novel. It's also a wonderful encapsulation of the idea that makes the entire dystopian genre universally relatable: that home is not a physical thing, but an emotional one.
9 "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."
'The Road' (2006)
Cormac McCarthy is far and away one of the most important and widely acclaimed American authors of his generation, and his work is a must-read for virtually anyone looking to get a full picture of the quality of modern American literature. Many bookworms opt to make The Road their first McCarthy experience, and it's easy to see why, as this post-apocalyptic sci-fi masterpiece is far more minimalistic and accessible than the rest of the author's oeuvre.
The book's best quote is a testament to why it's generally considered one of the greatest American book masterpieces of the 21st century. It's one of the first things that The Boy says to The Man, and it's a line that's key to the book's dark, desolate tone. The quote speaks to a universal truth of trauma and the loss of beauty in a devastating world, and that's what makes it stick in readers' memories long after they've finished reading the novel.
8 "Some things you can never leave behind. They don't belong to the past. They belong to you."
'The 5th Wave' (2013)
After the immense success of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy, there was a boom in dystopian sci-fi for young adult readers unlike anything else the publishing industry had seen before. From this boom came books as great as Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave, the first novel in the trilogy of the same name. It's a very trope-heavy kind of YA dystopia, that's for sure, but it's the way that it elevates those tropes that makes it so memorable.
This quote is spoken by the protagonist, Cassie, as she navigates what remains of the Earth after four waves of alien extermination events, having lost her parents and been separated from her five-year-old brother. It's a line that asserts the core message of The 5th Wave, which is that humanity is tied to the memories and connections that people carry with them when the going gets rough. It's a quote that's key to Cassie's character arc and journey of internal growth.
7 "Toeffectivelycontainacivilization’sdevelopmentanddisarmitacrosssuchalongspanoftime,thereisonlyoneway:killitsscience."
'The Three-Body Problem' (2006)
Penned by Chinese writer and computer engineer Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem is one of the greatest hard science fiction novels of not only the last 25 years, but perhaps even arguably of all time. Liu's writing is heavily based on well-constructed exposition and coldly functional prose, a kind of writing that produces some of the most unforgettable quotes of any sci-fi book in recent memory.
The book's best quote should be everything anyone should need to read to understand why it's often hailed as one of the greatest hard sci-fi books of all time. Spoken during a council meeting among the Trisolaran aliens as they formulate their plan to invade Earth, the line is proof of why this is one of the greatest alien invasion books ever written. Where most books in the subgenre tend to place aliens' strength in their military or technological might, The Three-Body Problem proposes that the best possible way to destroy humanity would be to bring human reason itself into question.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
- You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
- You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
- Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
- That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
- You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
- Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
- Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
- That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.
- You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
- You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
- Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
- That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
- You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
- Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
- You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
- When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
- You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
- Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
- Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
- That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
6 "Stars, everywhere. So many stars that I could not for the life of me understand how the sky could contain them all yet be so black."
'Blindsight' (2006)
Although some may consider Peter Watts' Blindsight underrated by mainstream readers, it's one of the biggest hard sci-fi cult classics of its time, and one of the best sci-fi books of the 2000s. Nominated for the Hugo for Best Novel in 2007, it's a book built on an absolutely chilling premise, one that proposes the possibility that human consciousness may be not only unnecessary, but an evolutionary disadvantage.
It's a fascinating enough concept on paper, and Watts finds all sorts of enthralling ways to execute it, as perfectly illustrated by the novel's best and most memorable quote. It's a line that perfectly encapsulates the blend between existential dread and the wonder of discovery that has fueled the science fiction genre since its infancy. Spoken by the narrator, an emotionally detached observer of human behavior, it's undoubtedly one of modern sci-fi's best quotes.
5 "If you’re going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance, you should make it a good one."
'Ancillary Justice' (2013)
Ann Leckie's debut novel and the opening chapter of her Imperial Radch space opera book trilogy, Ancillary Justice is widely considered a landmark of the modern space opera genre. It won nearly every major sci-fi award there was to win in 2014, making it the only novel in history ever to have won all four of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Arthur C. Clarke awards.
The book's best quote is a flawless encapsulation of the thematic core that drives the space opera genre as a whole. From Star Wars to Star Trek and beyond, this genre has always been about brave people taking their chances and making them count, facing seemingly insurmountable odds and somehow coming out on top. Said by the protagonist while she contemplates confronting the totalitarian empire, it's a quote that's simply unforgettable.
4 "It is the minds of a people that have to stay free. Bodies die, or suffer, or are imprisoned. Memory lasts."
'A Desolation Called Peace' (2021)
A Desolation Called Peace is the award-winning sequel to Arkady Martine's award-winning A Memory Called Empire, and it's easily among the best space opera sequels that literature has seen in quite a while. Part of Martine's Teixcalaan series, it's a gripping study of themes like conquest, colonialism, and cultural assimilation. All in all, it's among the most timely science fiction novels of the 2020s so far.
A big reason why Desolation Called Peace is one of the best sci-fi books of the last 15 years is the dialogue, and the book's best quote is said by Mahit, an ambassador from an independent mining community living in the shadow of the expansionist Teixcalaanli empire. As a historian, it should come as no surprise that Martine spends time making a statement that keeping individuals' minds free is the truest and most effective form of resistance against colonialism.
3 "I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war."
'Red Rising' (2014)
First impressions always matter, and the opening lines of science fiction novels are no exception. The opener of a sci-fi book doesn't necessarily make or break everything that comes after, but a good first quote—like that of Pierce Brown's Red Rising, the incredible first volume in the dystopian saga of the same name—certainly does go a long way in instantly hooking the reader.
Red Rising's opening line is snappy, concise, and to-the-point in all the ways that a sci-fi book opener should be. It's a statement that instantly tells you everything you need to know right off the bat about the main character: He's not your traditional, selfless, clean-cut sci-fi hero, but rather a reluctant, tragic warrior who will clearly test the reader's views on the cost of true peace.
2 "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option: I'm gonna have to science the s—t out of this."
'The Martian' (2011)
Though he has published only three novels so far, there's almost no denying that Andy Weir is already among the most popular and important hard science fiction authors working today. His stunning debut was the incredible The Martian, perhaps the single best hard sci-fi book set on Mars that has ever been written. Fittingly, everything that follows one of the best opening lines in sci-fi book history is every bit as fun and memorable.
The Martian is one of the best-written sci-fi books ever, with Weir infusing the protagonist's tone of voice with tons of heart, personality, intelligence, and humor. There is no better representation of that narrating voice than the book's best quote, spoken by our protagonist after he realizes that he has accidentally been left behind on Mars during the Ares 3 mission. It's a quote that has become a bona fide rallying cry for hard science fiction enthusiasts around the world, and for good reason. It is, after all, what the subgenre is all about.
1 "Despite knowing the journey and where it leads, I embrace it and welcome every moment."
'Stories of Your Life and Others' (2002)
Though it has generally been great novels that have delivered most of the best sci-fi book quotes of the last 25 years, the very best one actually comes from a sci-fi and fantasy short story collection by Ted Chiang. The best story of the bunch is almost inarguably the titular novella, Story of Your Life, truly one of the greatest science fiction novellas of perhaps not just the 21st century, but of all time.
The story's best quote may seem somewhat corny on the surface, but it works phenomenally on two particular fronts. On the one hand, it's the deeply emotional journey that leads to that line, with Dr. Banks reflecting on the mind-bending ability gifted to her by the aliens, that makes it such a hard-hitting quote. On the other hand—and perhaps most importantly—it's a quote that encapsulates the inimitable magic of not just sci-fi, but storytelling as a whole. Die-hard fans of the sci-fi genre may typically have a certain set of expectations for everything they read, but it's the moments that lead to the destination that make reading science fiction such a delightful activity.
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