David Gerrold

"Don’t push the on-button if you don’t know where the off-button is."

"The way I heard it, a contract is a list of all the ways two people don’t trust each other."

"“So what happens when the camera is finally invented?” Handley let his breath escape in a whoosh. “The artists are out of jobs?” “Wrong. The artist simply have to learn how to do things that the camera can’t. The artist had to stop being a recorder and start being an interpreter. That’s when expressionism was born.”"

"The sullen power of great violence forged into shapes of metal is always ugly."

"It was as private as the main floor of Hell."

"They say that killing is a mortal sin, that it is against the laws of God. If that is true—and I know now that it must be—if that is true, then every man who has ever taken a human life has been, from that moment on, damned for eternity. No matter how many men or nations say that it is all right for a man to take up arms against an enemy, it does not change that one basic fact—killing is a mortal sin. And every one of those simple white markers we had stood among represents a soul condemned. A nation had sentenced her sons to damnation so that she might survive. There’s no such thing as a “moral war.”"

"Hypocrisy piled upon hypocrisy. Not only did I try to influence the course of their actions—but I dared to do it in the name of God—I tried to save their souls! I tried to save them from themselves! Is that so horrible? Ah, yes. It is the worst of all possible crimes."

"There isn’t a tool built that can’t be used as a weapon."

"“You could call it that,” Auberson sighed. It wouldn’t be correct, but you could call it that."

"“Whatever our purpose, we probably aren’t fulfilling it. We’re not functioning as we should.” He shrugged at her. “How should we function?” “Like human beings.” She said it righteously. “Isn’t that what the human race is already doing? Functioning like human beings—squabbling with each other, killing each other, hating...?” “That’s not human.” “Oh, but it is. It’s very human.” “Well, it’s not what human should be.” “Now that’s a different story. You’re not talking about what people are, but what you want them to be.” “Well, maybe we should be what we aren’t because what we are now isn’t good enough. Maybe we should be dismantled.” “I don’t think we have to worry too much about somebody up there doing it—we’re doing it ourselves.”"

"Auberson’s first impression of the man was of eight pounds of potatoes in a ten-pound sack."

"Ah well—the boss didn’t have to know how to run the business. He only needed to know how to run the people who knew."

"It was not an unfamiliar sensation, but it was strange to feel it in the daytime. Mostly, it was a nighttime visitor, an ever-gentle gnawing at the back of the head that had to be always guarded against, lest its realization sweep forth with a cold familiar rush. It was the sudden startling glimpse over the edge—the realization that death is inevitable, that it happens to everyone, that it would happen to me too; that someday, someday, the all-important I (the center of the whole thing) would cease to exist. Would stop. Would end. Would no longer be. Nothing. Nobody. Finished. Death."

"HARLIE continued,"

"Not that he was jealous of the machine—but it was reassuring to know that there was still something that human beings could do that machines could not master. Love."

"I’ve always suspected that Judas was the most faithful of the apostles, and that his betrayal of Jesus was not a betrayal at all, simply a test to prove that Christ could not be betrayed. The way I see it, Judas hoped and expected that Christ would have worked some kind of miracle and turned away those soldiers when they came for him. Or perhaps he would not die on the cross. Or perhaps—well, never mind. In any case, Jesus didn’t do any of these things, probably because he was not capable of it. You see, I’ve also always believed that Christ was not the son of God, but just a very very good man, and that he had no supernatural powers at all, just the abilities of any normal human being. When he died, that’s when Judas realized that he had not been testing God at all—he’d been betraying a human being, perhaps the best human being. Judas’s mistake was in wanting too much to believe in the powers of Christ. He wanted Christ to demonstrate to everyone that he was the son of God, and he believed his Christ could do it—only his Christ wasn’t the son of God and couldn’t do it, and he died. You see, it was Christ who betrayed Judas—by promising what he couldn’t deliver. And Judas realized what he had done and hung himself. That’s my interpretation of it, Auberson—not the traditional, I’ll agree, but it has more meaning to me. Judas’s mistake was in believing too hard and not questioning first what he thought were facts. I don’t intend to repeat that mistake."

"Now you see why I hate to leave my lab. It tires me out too much to have to do other people’s thinking for them."

"Life is full of little surprises. Time travel is full of big ones."

"You aren’t really jumping through time, that’s the illusion; what you’re actually doing is leaving one timestream and jumping to—maybe even creating—another. The second one is identical to the one you just left, including all of the changes you made in it—up to the instant of your appearance. At that moment, simply by the fact of your existence in it, the second timestream becomes a different timestream. You are the difference."

"I also know that Christianity has held back any further advances in human consciousness for the past thousand years. And for the past century it’s been in direct conflict with its illegitimate offspring, Communism (again with a capital C). Both ask the individual to sacrifice his self-interest to the higher goals of the organization. (Which is okay by me as long as it’s voluntary; but as soon as either becomes too big—and takes on that damned capital C—they stop asking for cooperation and start demanding it.) Any higher states of human enlightenment have been sacrificed between these two monoliths."

"I think I exist, therefore I exist. I think."

"I wish I could change it all. I wish I could. But I can’t. Dammit. Now I know what it’s like to have an indelible past—one that can’t be erased and changed at will. It’s frustrating. It’s maddening. And it makes me wish I had been more careful and thoughtful."

"Death comes black and hard, rushing down on me from the future, with no possible chance of escape."

"You cannot avoid mortality. But you can choose your way of meeting it. And that is the most that any man can hope for. Live well, my son."

"I’ve always felt that anyone who wants to talk about my private life is only demonstrating the paucity of his/her imagination when there are so many more important and exciting things to discuss."

"Love isn't what you get. It's what you create."

"There are only two times when it's appropriate for a man to have his nose in a woman's vagina. The first time is when he's stark naked and weighs about 7 lbs."

"The second time is by mutual consent."

"Life must be a daring adventure or it is nothing at all. It's always a choice between joy and despair. I tried despair. Joy is more fun."

"Every human being is unique. We can generalize at length, but every human being is an individual. And this is especially true about children -- every child develops in their own unique way."