Diplomats Of The United States

"“Why do you fight this war?” The alien mind howled out its war slogan—as incomprehensible as an astrologer’s jargon."

"I wanted to tell him that all lives are the same length when viewed from the foreshortened perspective of death, and that life, like music, requires no meaning but only a certain symmetry."

"“Just what is your position here?” “I’m an adviser to his Majesty.” Nicodaeus smiled blandly. “He thinks I’m a master of magic, of course, but among these feather-heads a little common sense is sufficient to earn one a reputation as a wise man.”"

"I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change. (p. 13)"

"The human mind is a pattern, nothing more. The first dim flicker of awareness in the evolving forebrain of Australopithecus carried that pattern in embryo; and down through all the ages, as the human neural engine increased in power and complexity, gained control of its environment in geometrically expanding increments, the pattern never varied. Man clings to his self-orientation as the psychological center of the Universe. He can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact. Without it he’s a mind adrift in a trackless infinity—lacking any scale against which to measure his aspirations, his losses, his victories. Even when the light of his intellect shows him that the structure is itself a product of his brain; that infinity knows no scale, and eternity no duration—still he clings to his self-non-self concept, as a philosopher clings to a life he knows must end, to ideals he knows are ephemeral, to causes he knows will be forgotten."

"An idea was beginning to get through, and he wasn’t liking it very well."

"Too late, I realized how I had trapped myself. I had let sleep in as a guest, and death had slipped through the door."

"The Karg looked at her with the interested expression of a coroner who sees his customer twitch."

"“Impossible!” he said, as if he believed it—or as if he wanted awfully badly to believe it."

"One nice thing about working with a piece of machinery: you don’t waste time trying to justify your actions."

"Sure—that’s the concept. It wouldn’t be the first concept that had to be modified in the face of experience."

"Less than total control is no control at all. You will obey my instructions, Mr. Ravel. In every detail. Or I will scrap the project."

"Don’t go female on me now. We don’t have time for nonsense."

"“Are you all right?” Mellia said. “It’s nothing a month in the intensive care unit wouldn’t clear up.”"

"It was a nasty little village, poverty-stricken, ugly, hostile, much like little towns in all times and climes."

"He turned; she stood in the doorway, clad in an invisible negligee."

"“M-magic?” Lafayette stuttered. “Nonsense. Electronics.”"

"Strange—I go along for months at a time—even years—without so much as a mild concussion—and then bam—slam—bash! They start using my head for a practice dummy. That’s how I can tell that I’m having an adventure."

"There’s nothing like a little slavery to make a man appreciate even a modest portion of freedom."

"“Him and his pet dragon—” “More folklore, I take it?” “Well, I never actually seen this dragon.” “Hmmm. Funny how nobody I’ve met has seen it, but they all believe in it.”"

"Magic, after all? He felt the untrimmed hair at the nape of his neck rising. But then, maybe it was just electronics—magic rationalized."

"“Quelius—you’re nuts—did you know that?” “Of course. That’s quite all right. Better embarked on an exciting insanity than moldering away in dull normality. One thing you can’t deny: we psychotics lead interesting lives.”"

"I’m arguing with myself and I can’t tell who’s winning."

"To be adult is to be disillusioned. Only realities count."

"I know; you don’t consider it impossible. That’s the trouble with you; you don’t consider anything impossible. It would make life a lot easier for me if you’d let me rule out a few items—like leprechauns who hang out at Stonehenge."

"Foster shook his head. “The inherent inertia of the human mind,” he said. “How it fights to resist new ideas.”"

"Most taboos have to do with eating, sex, elimination or gods; so remember, look before you sit down, lie down, squat down or kneel down!"

"“It’s a failing of your culture,” Foster said, “that hypothesis becomes dogma almost overnight. You’re too close to your Neolithic, when the blind acceptance of tribal lore had survival value. Having learned to evoke the fire god from sticks, by rote, you tend to extend the principal to all ‘established facts.’”"

"“None of that, either,” he commanded. “Keep your mind on the immediate problem—just as soon as you figure out what the immediate problem is,” he added."

"Rules had been made, and even enforced from time to time. When the first absolute prohibition of time meddling came along, it was already far too late."

"Man clings to his self-orientation at the psychological center of the Universe. You can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact."

"The Third Era had recognized the impossibility of correcting the effects of human interference with more human interference."

"Lucifer hurried on. “But I assure you that most of what you’ve heard is grossly exaggerated. That is to say, I’m not really as bad as all that. I mean, there are different kinds of er, badness. There is the real evil, and then there’s sin. I’m, ah, associated with sin.” “The distinction seems a subtle one, Mr., ah, Lucifer—” “Not really, professor. We all sense instinctively what true evil is. Sin is merely statutory evil—things that are regarded as wrong simply because there’s a rule against them. Like, ah, smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor and going to movies on Sunday, or wearing lipstick and silk hose, or eating pork, or swatting flies—depending on which set of rules you’re going by. They’re corollary to ritual virtues such as lighting candles or spinning prayer wheels or wearing out-of-date styles.” Dimpleby leaned back and steepled his fingers. “Hmmm. Whereas genuine evil…?” “Murder, violence, lying, cheating, theft,” Lucifer enumerated. “Sin, on the other hand, essentially includes anything that looks like it might be fun.” “Come to think of it, I’ve never heard anything in praise of fun from the anti-sin people,” Curl said thoughtfully. “Nor from any ecclesiastic with a good head for fund-raising,” Dimpleby concluded. “It’s all due to human laziness, I’m afraid,” Lucifer said sadly. “It seems so much easier and more convenient to observe a few ritual prohibitions than to actually give up normal business practices.”"

"“The San Andreas Fault,” Waverly groaned. “Good-by San Francisco!” “It’s the Sequoias I’m thinking of,” Fom Berj sighed. “Remarkable organisms, and not nearly so easy to replace as San Franciscans.”"

"“I can see there’s been a miscarriage of justice.” “An abortion, you mean!"

"Are you sure you’re really the Devil and not someone else with the same name?"

"So—let’s remember the Uranium Rule. Don’t Do It! The Other Guy May Be Bigger!"

"Adventure has been defined as somebody else having a difficult time, a long way away. (p. 17)"

"The last burst picked me up and threw me a thousand miles into an open grave and the mud showered down on me and a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn’t care any more, because I was far away, in that place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass, slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains. (p. 18)"

"“It’s an old trick,” the security chief said. “Reverse cunning, we call it in the security game; indistinguishable from utter stupidity.”"

"“You’re talking to yourself.” “It’s all right. I’m not listening.” (p. 78)"

"“Take it easy, girl,” I said, and patted her shoulder; I knew my touching her would chill her down again. Not a nice thing to know, but useful."

"If we go down that road we might have, within five years, 300,000 men in the rice paddies of the jungles of Viet-Nam and never be able to find them."

"Nothing propinks like propinquity."

"... the ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack had far more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America's leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything."

"This was signed by twenty members of the United States diplomatic team in Bangladesh and, on its arrival at the State Department, by a further nine senior officers in the South Asia division. It was the most public and the most strongly worded demarche from State Department servants to the State Department that has ever been recorded. The circumstances fully warranted the protest."

"Blood, defying Nixon’s policy, said that the United States should speak out against the killing, suspend economic aid to Pakistan, and pressure Yahya to make a political settlement. Although seemingly trying to be circumspect, he said that the “ongoing persecution of Hindus” suggested that some of the Pakistan army wanted “a general exodus of the Hindu minority.” Yahya himself was disturbed by Blood’s testimony.... Still, he was under oath, and his answers were devastating. He testified of “a continued exodus” of Bengali refugees up until the day he departed Dacca. They were fleeing from any city or village that the military had struck. Most of them were Hindus, leaving because of specific persecution."

"Samuel Hoskinson, Kissinger’s staffer, remembers that Blood’s cables got no leverage in the White House—even though the CIA chief in Dacca admired Blood’s coolness in terrible circumstances, and Hoskinson’s friends in the Foreign Service held Blood in high regard as a reporter. Hoskinson says, “We’d call them to the attention of Henry and Haig. It didn’t seem to get a lot of response in policy terms.” He notes about Blood, “He was regarded as being squishy. Maybe a little bit too enamored with the Bengalis and their leadership, a little soft-headed on this stuff.” Blood, he recalls, was “worrying about the plight of the Bengalis, which they didn’t give much credence to. Human rights didn’t really count for much.… You don’t get down and wallow around in this stuff. We’ve got American interests on the line there. That’s the mind-set.” He says, “In retrospect I think he had it about right. But he didn’t have the credibility. There was always the tendency to believe more what was coming from Islamabad.… And we got this bleeding heart out there in Dacca.”"

"Blood redoubled his reporting, relaying a stream of “horror stories of varying reliability” to Washington. He reported an “atmosphere of terror” meant to cow the Bengalis into quiescence. There were ongoing shootings in Dacca and the surrounding areas, with newly killed corpses being loaded onto a truck. Blood found the few East Pakistani officials who dared come to work “stunned with grief and grim in their denunciation of Pak military brutality,” with one of them sobbing. American priests in Old Dacca told Blood that the Pakistan army, facing no provocation worse than putting up barricades, would set houses on fire and then shoot people as they ran out. The priests thought Hindus had been particular targets. Other Bengalis had witnessed six people gunned down in a shantytown, with the “army going after Hindus with vengeance.”"

"His wife, a vivacious and gracious graphic artist from New York, who is vibrant at eighty-seven years old, recalls, “He was an exact person. He could become interested in anything, but he wanted to know the exact facts.”"