Detective Fiction Authors

"“How does it concern you people? It’s our problem. We’ll solve it. If not, it’s our own particular road to hell.” “Better your own road to hell than another’s road to heaven, eh?”"

"It was the addition of status that brought the little things: a more comfortable seat here, a better cut of meat there, a shorter wait in line at the other place. To the philosophical mind, these items might seem scarcely worth any great trouble to acquire. Yet no one, however philosophical, could give up those privileges, once acquired, without a pang. That was the point."

"The division between human and robot is perhaps not as significant as that between intelligence and nonintelligence."

"Men grew desperate and the border between bitter frustration and wild destruction is sometimes easily crossed."

"Why, Stephen, if I am right, it means that the Machine is conducting our future for us not only simply in direct answer to our direct questions, but in general answer to the world situation and to human psychology as a whole. And to know that may make us unhappy and may hurt our pride. The Machine cannot, must not, make us unhappy. "Stephen, how do we know what the ultimate good of Humanity will entail? We haven't at our disposal the infinite factors that the Machine has at its! Perhaps, to give you a not unfamiliar example, our entire technical civilization has created more unhappiness and misery than it has removed. Perhaps an agrarian or pastoral civilization, with less culture and less people would be better. If so, the Machines must move in that direction, preferably without telling us, since in our ignorant prejudices we only know that what we are used to, is good—and we would then fight change. Or perhaps a complete urbanization, or a completely caste-ridden society, or complete anarchy, is the answer. We don't know. Only the Machines know, and they are going there and taking us with them." "But you are telling me, Susan, that the 'Society for Humanity' is right; and that Mankind has lost its own say in its future." "It never had any, really. It was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand—at the whims of climate, and the fortunes of war. Now the Machines understand them; and no one can stop them, since the Machines will deal with them as they are dealing with the Society,—having, as they do, the greatest of weapons at their disposal, the absolute control of our economy." "How horrible!" "Perhaps how wonderful! Think, that for all time, all conflicts are finally evitable. Only the Machines, from now on, are inevitable!"

"There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power."

"The machine is only a tool after all, which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back. The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested."

"“There’s danger of violence?” “The Fundamentalists threaten it, so I suppose there is, in a theoretical sense. But I don’t really expect it. The Fundies have no real power. They’re just the continuous irritant factor that might stir up a riot after a while.”"

"“You’re the U. S. Robot’s psychologist, aren’t you?” “Robopsychologist, please.” “Oh, are robots so different from men, mentally?” “Worlds different.” She allowed herself a frosty smile, “Robots are essentially decent.”"

"Francis Quinn was a politician of the new school. That, of course, is a meaningless expression, as are all expressions of the sort. Most of the “new schools” we have were duplicated in the social life of ancient Greece, and perhaps, if we knew more about it, in the social life of ancient Sumeria and in the lake dwellings of prehistoric Switzerland as well."

"Milton Ashe is not the type to marry a head of hair and a pair of eyes."

"Just you think first, and don't bother to speak afterward, either."

"The unwritten motto of United States Robot and Mechanical Men Corp. was well-known: “No employee makes the same mistake twice. He is fired the first time.”"

"“You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason—if you pick the proper postulates. We have ours and Cutie [robot QT-1] has his.” “Then let’s get at those postulates in a hurry. The storm’s due tomorrow.” Powell sighed wearily. “That’s where everything falls down. Postulates are based on assumptions and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them. ...”"

"I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless."

"There's nothing like deduction. We've determined everything about our problem but the solution."

"“Nonsense,” Weston denied, with an involuntary nervous shiver. “That’s completely ridiculous. We had a long discussion at the time we bought Robbie about the First Law of Robotics. You know that it is impossible for a robot to harm a human being; that long before enough can go wrong to alter that First Law, a robot would be completely inoperable. It’s a mathematical impossibility. Besides I have an engineer from U.S. Robots here twice a year to give the poor gadget a complete overhaul. Why, there’s no more chance of anything at all going wrong with Robbie than there is of you or I suddenly going looney—considerably less, in fact.”"

"“Fifty years,” I hackneyed, “is a long time.” “Not when you’re looking back at them,” she said. “You wonder how they vanished so quickly.”"

"“Nobody in the government,” said Edwards stubbornly, “seems to care whether we reach the bottom of the matter or not.” “I’ve already explained that there have been no consequences but good ones. Why stir the mud at the bottom, when the water above is clear?”"

"It built itself up endlessly, like a chess game, and the telemetrists began to use a computer to program the computer that designed the program for the computer that programmed the robot-controlling computer."

"“Curing diabetes is just a detail and it will merely mean that the death rate will go down slightly and produce just a bit more pressure in the direction of population increase. I’m not interested in achieving that.” “You don’t value human life?” “Not infinitely. There are too many people on earth.” “I know that some think so.” “You’re one of them, Mr. Secretary. You have written articles saying so. And it’s obvious to any thinking man—to you more than anyone—what it’s doing. Overpopulation means discomfort, and to reduce the discomfort private choice must disappear. Crowd enough people into a field and the only way they can all sit down is for all to sit down at the same time. Make a mob dense enough and they can move from one point to another quickly only by marching in formation. That is what men are becoming; a blindly marching mob knowing nothing about where it is going or why.”"

"“That’s The Goose,” he said. The way he said it, I could hear the capitals. I stared at it. It looked like any other goose, fat, self-satisfied and short-tempered."

"It’s funny the respectable names you can give to superstition."

"It is no one’s privilege to despise another. It is only a hard-won right after long experience."

"Look around you. Look at the planet, Earth. What kind of a ridiculous animal are we to be lords of the world after the dinosaurs had failed? Sure, we’re intelligent, but what’s intelligence? We think it is important because we have it. If the Tyrannosaurus could have picked out the one quality that he thought would ensure species domination, it would be size and strength. And he would make a better case for it. He lasted longer than we are likely to."

"Psychiatry is becoming too popular. Everybody talks of complexes and neuroses and psychoses and compulsions and whatnot. One man’s guilt complex is another man’s good night’s sleep."

"“You are an important man–” Ralston snorted. “You do not consider that to be so?” asked Blaustein. “No, I don’t. There are no important men, any more than there are important individual bacteria.” “I don’t understand.” “I don’t expect you to.”"

"The newsmen were writing down sentences busily as Hoskins spoke to them. They did not understand and they were sure their readers would not, but it sounded scientific and that was what counted."

"“If you can see the future –” “Why am I not the richest man on earth? Is that it? But I am rich—in all I want. You want recognition and I want to be left alone. I do my work. No one bothers me. That makes me a billionaire.”"

"I don’t say it was deliberate fraud. He was probably madly sincere, and sincerely mad."

"Printing will tell you such useful things and such interesting things that not being able to read would be as bad as not being able to see."

"“Why didn’t people just use a computer?” “That was before they had computers,” cried Paul. “Before?” “Sure. Do you think people always had computers? Didn’t you ever hear of cavemen?”"

"The Dantean conceptions of Inferno were childish and unworthy of the Divine imagination: fire and torture. Boredom is much more subtle. The inner torture of a mind unable to escape itself in any way, condemned to fester in its own exuding mental pus for all time, is much more fitting. Oh, yes, my friend, we have been judged, and condemned, too, and this is not Heaven, but hell."

"We face eternity now. We have no universe left, no outside phenomena, no emotions, no passions. Nothing but ourselves and thought. We face an eternity of introspection, when all through history we have never known what to do with ourselves on a rainy Sunday."

"“Surely you believe in God?” “Well, said R.E., “I believed a lot of things about Him that would probably startle you.”"

"He could almost wish he were superstitious. He could then console himself with the thought that the casual meaningless meeting had really been directed by a knowing and purposeful Fate."

"“Arrange for the statue to come to life while we are watching, and make sure that it is terribly in love with Elderberry.” “Love is easy. That’s just a matter of adjusting hormones.”"

"“He seemed so pleasant, so friendly, so grateful for little favors. How could I know that underneath it all he was a vicious, libelous hellhound.” George said, “But he was a critic. How could he be anything else? You train for the post by maligning your mother.”"

"“You clearly know nothing at all about economics, old fellow.” “Neither do economists, George,” I said."

"“An accent?” “Substandard English. Foreigners who have not learned the language as infants but who pick it up in later life invariably mispronounce the vowels, miss out on word order, break up the grammar, and so on.” A look of sheer horror crossed Azazel’s tiny face. “But that’s a capital offense,” he said. “Not on this world,” I said. “It should be, but it isn’t.”"

"“The evil drink does,” said George, with a heavily alcoholic sigh, “would be hard to assess.” “Not if you were sober,” I said."

"What a human being believes, however, no matter with what ardor, is not necessarily objective truth."

"Self-preservation has frequently knuckled under to that tremendous yearning to ‘get even.’"

"Modesty is an unnatural attitude, and one which is only with difficulty taught to children."

"“Things in the past always seem greater.” Brand condescended with a smile. “There is a theorem to that effect which you’ll find in any elementary text. Freshmen invariably call it the ‘GOD Theorem.’ Stands for ‘Good-Old-Days,’ you know. But go on.” Theor frowned at the digression. He hid the beginning of a sneer. “You can always dismiss an uncomfortable fact by pinning a dowdy label to it.”"

"“But you really are, you know.” This was said with intense earnestness. “I mean good, really good. I think it is wonderful to be an author like you. It must be almost like being God.” Graham stared blankly. “Not to editors, sister.” Sister didn’t get the whisper. She continued, “To be able to create living characters out of nothing; to unfold souls to all the world; to put thoughts into words; to build pictures and create worlds. I have often thought that an author was the most gloriously gifted person in all creation. Better an inspired author starving in a garret than a king upon his throne. Don’t you think so?” “Definitely,” lied Graham."

"Earth governments in moments of stress are not famous for being reasonable."

"If the love of money is the root of all evil, the need of money is most certainly the root of all despair."

"A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

"A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."