"When evenly matched, you cannot win against your enemy unless you understand them. And if you truly understand, why are you fighting and not talking?"

"“We must know our enemy, at least a little.” “That’s dangerous,” Prufrax said, almost instinctively. “Yes, it is. What you know, you cannot hate.”"

"To fight an enemy properly, you have to know what they are. Ignorance is defeat."

"The battle was over. There were no victors."

"“Being scared is nothing,” the old woman said. “Being bored, or ignorant—now that’s a crime.”"

"There is nothing finer in the world than the telling of tales. Split atoms if you wish, but splitting an infinitive—and getting away with it—is far nobler. Lance boils if you wish, but pricking pretensions is often cleaner and always more fun."

"You deserve whoever governs you … Everyone is responsible for the actions of their leaders."

"We're not prophets. We're not here to inform the rich people of the world on how to make more money, or to inform governments on how to direct themselves. We are here to allow you to dream your dreams and make them happen, and have your nightmares a little in advance so you can prevent them from happening."

"I remembered being so amazed by his stories from when my parents subscribed to OMNI magazine."

"It's interesting how many science fiction writers get going when they are very young. I was on a program with Greg Bear, and he mentioned that he had gotten started writing when he was eight. And I began writing when I was ten."

"We are born in ignorance, we die in ignorance, but maybe sometimes we learn something important and pass it along to others before we die. Or we write it down in a little book."

"The Republic, despite the best efforts of the surviving government, was quickly being replaced by something worse than anarchy—passionate mob rule, directed by untutored but skilled opportunists."

"All states resort to force in the end."

"The future seemed not just dangerous, not just bleak; it seemed incomprehensible."

"The universe stores the results of its operations as nature. I do not confuse nature with reality. At a fundamental level, reality is the set of rules the results of whose interactions are nature. Part of the problem of reconciling quantum mechanics with larger-scale phenomena comes from mistaking results for rules—they have been built into our brains, good for survival, but not for physics."

"Institutions, like any organism, hate to die."

"Populists believed the people should dictate their needs to any individual who rose above the herd, and bring them low again—except of course for the leaders of whatever populist government took power, who, as political messiahs, would earn specific privileges themselves."

"With a little ceremony, and not much in the way of clothing left to remove, we celebrated still being alive."

"My level of skepticism rose enormously; I’ve always bristled when people ask for, much less demand, trust."

"Why does our sense of individuality prevent us from correcting our weaknesses?"

"Equal in law is not equal in nature."

"“Nobody’s ever satisfied with what they have?” “Not in human experience; not at the level of governments, nations, or planets.”"

"The slogan of those who advocated therapy was, “A sane society is a polite society.”"

"That was the myth and I admit I found it attractive. I still do. It’s been said that a romantic is someone who never accepts the evidence of her eyes and ears."

"“The train’s late. Fascists are supposed to make them run on time,” Diane said, still tapping her boot. “They never did on earth,” I said. “You mean it’s a myth?” I nodded. “So fascists aren’t good for anything?” Diane asked. “Uniforms,” I said. “Ours don’t even have good uniforms.”"

"The sorrow never dies; it is merely nacred by time."

"Alienation without must be accompanied by alienation within; that is the law for every social level, even individuals. To harm one’s fellows, even one’s enemies, harms you, takes away some essential element from your self-respect and self-image."

"Whom could I blame? Ultimately, one man who had started a strangely secular church, attracting people good and bad, faithful and cynical, starting an organization too large and too well-financed and organized to simply fade: promulgating a series of lies become sacred truths. How often had that happened in human history, and how many had suffered and died?"

"I felt myself growing older. I didn’t see it as an improvement."

"That’s what politics is all about—coercion and lies."

"“Maybe you administrators can work it all out in the council.” You administrators. That put us in our place. Paper pushers, bureaucrats, politicians. Cut the politics. We were the ones who stood in the way of the scientist’s goal of unrestrained research and intellection."

"We were innocent and did not know that the price of freedom—of individuality—is attention to politics, careful planning, careful organization; philosophy is no more a barrier against political disaster than it is against plague."

"There may be no such thing as prescience, but honed instincts are crucial in our game."

"Here was a creed without a coherent philosophy—a system without a sensible metaphysic. Here was puerile hypothesis and even outright fantasy masquerading as revealed the truth."

"Some believe a superior being has guided humans. I see no compelling evidence for this. The human wish for guidance, for confirmation and external support, is an underlying theme in all they do and say, however. Very few stray far from this most fundamental of wishes: that they might have immortal and omniscient parents."

"He wondered for a moment if they had stumbled onto something truly supernatural but dismissed that with a disgusted shudder."

"We have arisen as the result of purely natural processes; one of the great achievements of modern science has been the elimination of God or others teleologisms him as a necessity from our explanations."

"You can find nearly anything human in Los Angeles, good and bad. I don’t think it would be workable as a city without mental therapy."

"“From what we’ve been told, he wasn’t very humble, was he, Mr. Lascal?” Lascal shook his head. “I don’t know many writers who are.”"

"What he liked he despised for being likable."

"The feedback loop is half of the secret of existence."

"Eccentricity is more than affectation to a poet. It’s a necessity."

"Poetry is dead and buried in a world of growing LitVid and illiteracy, vidiocy I’ve heard it called. Being dead, poetry has enormous freedom; being ignored, it can blossom like a rose in a manure heap. Poetry is risen. Poetry is the messiah of literature but the angel has not yet told anybody it is risen."

"I explored new territory and described it. I did not create it. Don’t blame the conduit for the lightning."

"Ours is an age of social anger."

"Conflict of the sexes is not a disease; it is an unavoidable byproduct like the smoke and water from a fire."

"More and more I am nothing without someone. To be alone is to be in bad company."

"A Stellar’s jay hopped along behind him, watching closely for dropped crumbs. “It’s dark,” he told the bird. “Go to sleep. I've eaten already. Where were you? No food now.” The bird persisted, however; it knew humans were liars."