Keith Laumer

"I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change. (p. 13)"

"Adventure has been defined as somebody else having a difficult time, a long way away. (p. 17)"

"The last burst picked me up and threw me a thousand miles into an open grave and the mud showered down on me and a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn’t care any more, because I was far away, in that place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass, slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains. (p. 18)"

"“You’re talking to yourself.” “It’s all right. I’m not listening.” (p. 78)"

"“The San Andreas Fault,” Waverly groaned. “Good-by San Francisco!” “It’s the Sequoias I’m thinking of,” Fom Berj sighed. “Remarkable organisms, and not nearly so easy to replace as San Franciscans.”"

"“I can see there’s been a miscarriage of justice.” “An abortion, you mean!"

"The Third Era had recognized the impossibility of correcting the effects of human interference with more human interference."

"Man clings to his self-orientation at the psychological center of the Universe. You can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact."

"Lucifer hurried on. “But I assure you that most of what you’ve heard is grossly exaggerated. That is to say, I’m not really as bad as all that. I mean, there are different kinds of er, badness. There is the real evil, and then there’s sin. I’m, ah, associated with sin.” “The distinction seems a subtle one, Mr., ah, Lucifer—” “Not really, professor. We all sense instinctively what true evil is. Sin is merely statutory evil—things that are regarded as wrong simply because there’s a rule against them. Like, ah, smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor and going to movies on Sunday, or wearing lipstick and silk hose, or eating pork, or swatting flies—depending on which set of rules you’re going by. They’re corollary to ritual virtues such as lighting candles or spinning prayer wheels or wearing out-of-date styles.” Dimpleby leaned back and steepled his fingers. “Hmmm. Whereas genuine evil…?” “Murder, violence, lying, cheating, theft,” Lucifer enumerated. “Sin, on the other hand, essentially includes anything that looks like it might be fun.” “Come to think of it, I’ve never heard anything in praise of fun from the anti-sin people,” Curl said thoughtfully. “Nor from any ecclesiastic with a good head for fund-raising,” Dimpleby concluded. “It’s all due to human laziness, I’m afraid,” Lucifer said sadly. “It seems so much easier and more convenient to observe a few ritual prohibitions than to actually give up normal business practices.”"

"Are you sure you’re really the Devil and not someone else with the same name?"

"So—let’s remember the Uranium Rule. Don’t Do It! The Other Guy May Be Bigger!"

"Most taboos have to do with eating, sex, elimination or gods; so remember, look before you sit down, lie down, squat down or kneel down!"

"To be adult is to be disillusioned. Only realities count."

"Foster shook his head. “The inherent inertia of the human mind,” he said. “How it fights to resist new ideas.”"

"I’m arguing with myself and I can’t tell who’s winning."

"I know; you don’t consider it impossible. That’s the trouble with you; you don’t consider anything impossible. It would make life a lot easier for me if you’d let me rule out a few items—like leprechauns who hang out at Stonehenge."

"“It’s a failing of your culture,” Foster said, “that hypothesis becomes dogma almost overnight. You’re too close to your Neolithic, when the blind acceptance of tribal lore had survival value. Having learned to evoke the fire god from sticks, by rote, you tend to extend the principal to all ‘established facts.’”"

"There’s nothing like a little slavery to make a man appreciate even a modest portion of freedom."

"I wanted to tell him that all lives are the same length when viewed from the foreshortened perspective of death, and that life, like music, requires no meaning but only a certain symmetry."

"“All right. Let’s begin with the world situation.” “I’d prefer a more cheerful subject—like cancer.”"

"Yours is not to reason why, eh? I guess you’re lucky at that. It’s not dying that hurts—it’s living."

"“Why do you fight this war?” The alien mind howled out its war slogan—as incomprehensible as an astrologer’s jargon."

"Out of the synthesis of opposites, a cancerous growth called Beauty came into being; obscene antisurvival concepts named Loyalty, Courage, Justice were born into the universe. Wherever the elemental Purities encountered this monstrous hybrid, a battle of extermination was joined. Good could compromise with Evil, but neither could meet with the half-breed, Art."

"Judge a chap on what he does, and not what he is, eh? None of us can help our natural tendencies—and perhaps overcoming one’s instincts is in the end a nobler achievement than not having the impulse in the first place."

"I know it’s hard to grasp at first. I seem to recall I was a bit difficult to convince once. We are accustomed to thinking we know everything. There’s a powerful tendency to just disbelieve anything that doesn’t fit the preconception."

"I took all these details in as the mighty carnivore looked me over, yawned, and paced majestically toward me, frowning across at the distant herds like a troubled politician wondering who to pay the bribe to."

"It was easy to see the mechanics of schizophrenia at work here. From wishing, it was an easy jump to believe."

"“I say, old man, you’re developing something of a persecution complex, I’m afraid—” “That’s easy, when you’re persecuted.”"

"“Just what is your position here?” “I’m an adviser to his Majesty.” Nicodaeus smiled blandly. “He thinks I’m a master of magic, of course, but among these feather-heads a little common sense is sufficient to earn one a reputation as a wise man.”"

"“Him and his pet dragon—” “More folklore, I take it?” “Well, I never actually seen this dragon.” “Hmmm. Funny how nobody I’ve met has seen it, but they all believe in it.”"

"Magic, after all? He felt the untrimmed hair at the nape of his neck rising. But then, maybe it was just electronics—magic rationalized."

"“None of that, either,” he commanded. “Keep your mind on the immediate problem—just as soon as you figure out what the immediate problem is,” he added."

"“It’s an old trick,” the security chief said. “Reverse cunning, we call it in the security game; indistinguishable from utter stupidity.”"

"“M-magic?” Lafayette stuttered. “Nonsense. Electronics.”"

"He turned; she stood in the doorway, clad in an invisible negligee."

"Strange—I go along for months at a time—even years—without so much as a mild concussion—and then bam—slam—bash! They start using my head for a practice dummy. That’s how I can tell that I’m having an adventure."

"“Quelius—you’re nuts—did you know that?” “Of course. That’s quite all right. Better embarked on an exciting insanity than moldering away in dull normality. One thing you can’t deny: we psychotics lead interesting lives.”"

"Rules had been made, and even enforced from time to time. When the first absolute prohibition of time meddling came along, it was already far too late."

"“Take it easy, girl,” I said, and patted her shoulder; I knew my touching her would chill her down again. Not a nice thing to know, but useful."

"Don’t go female on me now. We don’t have time for nonsense."

"“Are you all right?” Mellia said. “It’s nothing a month in the intensive care unit wouldn’t clear up.”"

"Sure—that’s the concept. It wouldn’t be the first concept that had to be modified in the face of experience."

"One nice thing about working with a piece of machinery: you don’t waste time trying to justify your actions."

"Less than total control is no control at all. You will obey my instructions, Mr. Ravel. In every detail. Or I will scrap the project."

"It was a nasty little village, poverty-stricken, ugly, hostile, much like little towns in all times and climes."

"The Karg looked at her with the interested expression of a coroner who sees his customer twitch."

"Too late, I realized how I had trapped myself. I had let sleep in as a guest, and death had slipped through the door."

"“Impossible!” he said, as if he believed it—or as if he wanted awfully badly to believe it."

"An idea was beginning to get through, and he wasn’t liking it very well."

"The human mind is a pattern, nothing more. The first dim flicker of awareness in the evolving forebrain of Australopithecus carried that pattern in embryo; and down through all the ages, as the human neural engine increased in power and complexity, gained control of its environment in geometrically expanding increments, the pattern never varied. Man clings to his self-orientation as the psychological center of the Universe. He can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact. Without it he’s a mind adrift in a trackless infinity—lacking any scale against which to measure his aspirations, his losses, his victories. Even when the light of his intellect shows him that the structure is itself a product of his brain; that infinity knows no scale, and eternity no duration—still he clings to his self-non-self concept, as a philosopher clings to a life he knows must end, to ideals he knows are ephemeral, to causes he knows will be forgotten."