All Quotes

"What he liked he despised for being likable."

"“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.”"

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"“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."

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

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

"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?"

"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."

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

"“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.”"

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

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

"Equal in law is not equal in nature."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Be not hasty to speak; nor slow to hear!"

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? There is a brotherhood among all men. This must be recognized if life is to remain. We must learn the love of man."

"This is the greatest honour I have ever received in my life. Peace has always been my greatest concern. Yet in my childhood I learned to love it. My mother—an exceptional, brilliant woman — used to speak to me about it when I was still a child, because in those years there were also a lot of wars. What is more, I am a Catalan. Today, a province of Spain. But what has been Catalonia? Catalonia has been the greatest nation in the world. I will tell you why. Catalonia has had the first parliament, much before England. Catalonia had the first United Nations. All the authorities of Catalonia in the Eleventh Century met in a city of France, at that time Catalonia, to speak about peace, at the Eleventh Century. Peace in the world and against, against, against war, the inhumanity of the wars. So I am so happy, so happy, to be with you today. That is why the United Nations, which works solely towards the peace ideal, is in my heart, because anything to do with peace goes straight to my heart."

"I have not played the cello in front of an audience since long years but I think I must do it this time. I am going to play a melody from the Catalonian folklore: The singing of the Birds. Birds, when in the sky, go singing: Peace, peace, peace. And this is a melody that Bach, Beethoven and all great people would have admired and loved. And, in addition, it springs up from the soul of my country: Catalonia."

"His playing . . . is one of those rare things that may only come once in a lifetime and even not in one person's life, it may be centuries before there is anyone like that again. He is a funny little fellow only about 30 and plays with his eyes shut practically the whole time, every note every pause and tone colour is reflected in his face and to hear him again, to draw the bow across is a revelation."

"What I particularly admire in him is the firm stand he has taken, not only against the oppressors of his countrymen, but also against those opportunists who are always ready to compromise with the Devil. He perceives very clearly that the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it."

"I was Euphorbus at the siege of Troy."

"By the air which I breathe, and by the water which I drink, I will not endure to be blamed on account of this discourse."

"Dear youths, I warn you cherish peace divine, And in your hearts lay deep these words of mine."

"Τὴν δ' ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν διῃρῆσθαι τριχῆ, εἴς τε νοῦν καὶ φρένας καὶ θυμόν. νοῦν μὲν οὖν καὶ θυμὸν εἶναι καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις, φρένας δὲ μόνον ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ."

"ἀλλήλοις θ᾽ ὁμιλεῖν, ὡς τοὺς μὲν φίλους ἐχθροὺς μὴ ποιῆσαι, τοὺς δ᾽ ἐχθροὺς φίλους ἐργάσασθαι. ἴδιόν τε μηδὲν ἡγεῖσθαι."

"ἐν ὀργῇ μήτε τι λέγειν μήτε πράσσειν"

"Reason is immortal, all else mortal."

"The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or to evil."

"κοινὰ τὰ φίλων εἶναι καὶ φιλίαν ἰσότητα."

"Power is the near neighbour of necessity."

"Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and daemons."

"Sobriety is the strength of the soul, for it preserves its reason unclouded by passion."

"None but God is wise."

"λόγον περὶ θεοῦ σιγᾶν ἄμεινον ἢ προπετῶς διαλέγεσθαι. (In talk about God, silence is better than reckless words.) (Sextus 366)"