People From Colorado

"Sometimes there is such crowding that there is irritation, and this makes fear or anger; and following fear comes meetings of councils to make regulations; and following regulations is further irritation at the laws that are made."

"“Wisdom,” growled the Agirul. “Painful, isn’t it? We assume so much and resist learning to the contrary.”"

"“You would advise us not to worry?” “Oh, worry by all means,” said Windlow. “By all means. Yes. It sharpens the wits. A good worry does wonders for the defensive capabilities of the brain. However, I should not advise you to do without sleep.”"

"Where other gods might have advocated making life a garden, Voorstod’s God promised the garden only after death, preferably violent death. Then might the faithful lie about on the greensward sucking grapes and fucking virgins, so the prophets promised."

"Elsewhere negotiation might have worked. With other religions, it could have worked. Voorstod’s God, however, was a jealous and vindictive deity who ruled by murder, terrorism, and malediction. How did one negotiate with that?"

"It went on, “If you accuse, then you must judge.” “You let your accusers be your judges?” asked Peter, astounded. “Who else should be satisfied?” it asked. “If one’s accusers cannot be satisfied, what is justice?” “One’s accusers might be mad,” Peter suggested, very unwisely I thought, considering where we were. “Mad, and incapable of being satisfied.”"

"Should the escaped Gharm be returned as breakers of contract and apostates, as Voorstod demanded? Or should the Gharm be given sanctuary as common sense and good nature dictated? Where did humanity stop and interference with religion begin?"

"Let us consider, said Theology Panel: “Is Voorstod a slave state, or is it merely pious?”"

"One hates to think that all of existence is trivial."

"You have not reared him to care what others do, or think, or say. How then should he care for education, for is that not the study of what others care about?"

"But Voorstod had long ago learned what passed for patience among the prophets: a rage they barely bothered to suppress. According to the prophets, if a man failed in his mission, he failed because Almighty God was unhappy with him and willed it so. If God were happy with him, he could not fail. If he failed, God was unhappy with him, and so were the prophets. It was all very logical."

"“There’s a lot of fathering in those legends,” Sal commented, disapprovingly. “A lot of fathering, a lot of kinging, a lot of death and violence, and very little uncleing and ordinary kindly living.”"

"I have in recent years often reflected upon memory. One takes it so for granted. One remembers with such facile infallibility. And one finds with such shock – at least it was a shock to me – that memory isn’t true."

"Sam grew up to be both dutiful and willful, a boy who would say yes to avoid trouble but then do as he pleased."

"Her tone conveyed the unimportance of anything that might have happened, anywhere, before she came upon the scene."

"We might be able to do something. If we were very lucky, it might even be the right thing."

"“Forgive my mentioning it. If you are like most young men, you hate having it mentioned.” Mavin could not help laughing. “I hate having it mentioned. Yes. Perhaps…” She paused a moment before going on, “it is because young people are not that sure they are competent.” “There is always that,” agreed the Seer. “But that feeling does not necessarily diminish with age. It is merely challenged less frequently. When one has over sixty years, as I do, then the world assumes we would not have survived without competence. With someone your age, it could always be sheer luck.”"

"You’ve been too long in the nursery, boy. Too long with lads and dreamers and cooks. Come out, come out wherever you are! The cock crows morning, and the Great Game is toward! Play it or be swept from the board."

"Those who encounter chains of events at two disparate points, without observing the connections, think they have observed coincidence when they have, in fact, seen only consequence."

"He did a lot of disputation and he always raised his voice when his logic was weak."

"Duty was simply not enough. There had to be more than that!"

"We had what we thought was the answer and we troubled to look no further."

"She was trying to feel philosophical about dying, not managing it, trying not to be frightened, and not managing that, either."

"Time past was nothing, no matter how long. Time ahead was everything, no matter how brief."

"“Better late than not at all,” came a voice from the ranked multitude. “Better a tardy lover than a lonely bed.”"

"There are those who must find fault somewhere, among the dead if they cannot find enough among the living."

"Marjorie thought: It always comes down to something like this, doesn’t it. No matter what our consciences say, no matter how much doctrine we’ve been taught, no matter how many ethical considerations we’ve chewed and swallowed and tried to digest, it always comes down to us arming ourselves with weapons as deadly as we can manage and going out into combat..."

"They haven’t learned that being penitent sometimes does no good at all."

"There always has to be someone to see things first."

"I’m trying to decide whether we can afford to be merciful. The Arbai were merciful, but when confronted with evil, mercy becomes an evil."

"Too good is good for nothing."

"Why are we wondering why the world wishes itself dead when we are doing nothing to heal it?"

"He told us that nations of men fell into disorder, so nations of law were set up instead. He told us that nations of law then forgot justice and let the law become a Game, a Game in which the moves and the winning were more important than truth. He told us to seek justice rather than the Game. It was the laws, the rules which made Gaming. It was Gaming made injustice. We can only try something new and hope that it is better."

"“My son, be schooled by me. If your people taught you when you were a child that there are monsters in the wood, you would have believed them. Then, later, if a woodsman had come and said to you, leading you among the trees, ‘See, there is nothing here but shadow and light, leaf and trunk, bird and beast. See, I show you. Look with your own eyes.’ Though you would look and see nothing, still you would believe there were monsters there. You would believe them invisible, or behind you, or hiding beneath the stones, or within the trees somehow. No matter what the woodsman said, you would believe your fear. Men always believe their fear. Only the strong, the brave, the curious—only they can overcome their fear to peer and poke and pry at life to find what is truly there…”"

"“I don’t have much confidence,” she said. “A lot of what I’ve been taught isn’t making sense.” “That’s the nature of teaching. Something happens, and intelligence first apprehends it, then makes up a rule about it, then tries to pass the rule along. Very small beings invariably operate in that way. However, by the time the information is passed on, new things are happening that the old rule doesn’t fit. Eventually intelligence learns to stop making rules and understand the flow.”"

"Useless as a third leg on a goose."

"“The old ones, Ganver and the rest, they pretend it has significance. Oh, I recall that pretense, Seer. In my youth I was shown many things. ‘Watch and learn,’ they said to me. ‘Bao,’ they said to me. So I watched, but it was only nonsense. They showed me this and showed me that, but it meant nothing. It was only pretense, done to mystify us young ones and keep us subservient. The sign has no power. It is nothing. A symbol only; a symbol of our degradation.”"

"Don’t waste your time on penitence or guilt. Solving the problem is better!"

"History upon Terra tells us what horrors follow upon religious mandates of unlimited reproduction."

"This is the problem with too much Schooling. One learns to manipulate the labels in a way that the Gamesmistresses approve, and one doesn’t realize that things do not always act in accordance with the labels in the real world. One doesn’t realize that the labels, come to that, are often wrong."

"I often have these good ideas which are as often ignored."

"“Even pain,” said the king, with no intention of being prophetic, “even pain is preferable to dying of unrelieved ennui.”"

"“Not hunting today, sir?” asked Tony in his most innocent voice, busy putting two and two together but not sure how he felt about the resultant sum."

"“An itchy man is prey to discontent; he’ll suage his flea bites with the blood of kings.” Surely the common man wouldn’t want that!” “What common men want most is beer and sex, without disturbances.”"

"Sex was pleasurable, sure, but survival was sweeter still."

"If God is truly powerful, He would not let this plague go on."

"“Well, why didn’t the silly Bloomians think of that?” “Religion, I imagine, friend Chance. Religion serves to prevent thought in many cases, and I’d say it had done so here. They started with the presumption that anything as complex as the mill must exist for a good reason. Then they spent all their time inventing a good reason—and some god to be responsible for it—rather than looking for a sensible solution to their problem.”"

"What he’d said wasn’t inaccurate; it was simply a ridiculous understatement."

"“He has brain waves!” she shouted. “He has the same kind of brain waves as chickens. As a matter of fact, his brain waves are virtually indistinguishable from those of chickens.” “He’s not a chicken. He’s a human being!” Leelson’s face was very pale, his mouth was hard. “Morphologically, he’s a human being. Mentally, he’s a chicken.”"

"Does the worm on the hook expect to be rescued simply because the fish have eaten all the other worms?"