Science Fiction Authors

"Everyone laid a hand on him and closed their eyes. It reminded Roen of one of those healing prayer circles he attended in college church. No one ever got healed, but it was a good way for him to get close to some girls."

"The biggest mistake of the twentieth century. Go. “I’m going to have to say that art school rejecting Hitler’s application, leading him toward the career choice of becoming a mass murderer. That or New Coke. You?”"

"You, somehow, have the greatest potential of all my hosts, and are one of the dumbest, at the same time. “Gee, thanks for the confidence booster.” On the contrary, it is brave stupid people who change the world. The smart ones are usually too smart to even try."

"1984的作者预见到了专制的进步，却没有预见到技术的进步。"

"一句话，技术是中性的，但技术的进步会让自在的世界更自在，集权的世界更加集权。"

"If you’ve ever heard a physicist trying to explain to a mere mortal the meaning of quantum mechanics or the theory of relativity, you’ll understand our state. Some waves or other of time overlapping so as to create time splashes that broke off from their substratum into supratime and could be controlled – that’s all I got out of Lyova’s lectures and the popular articles written by my fellow journalists. But in the long run I wasn’t too upset about it. We use electricity without knowing a thing about electrodynamics, and I have yet to see anyone who was too bothered by that fact to go on living."

"What used to be an advantage had quickly turned into a liability, proving once more that in the mountains, as in life, nothing comes easily."

"I’m sure that the fantastic descriptions of interstellar travel in the science fiction of the last century made many a heart skip a beat. I really don’t want my account to be a wet blanket, but the truth is the truth: there is nothing duller than space flight."

"This mountain could be a throne for God or Satan, but luckily, we are no longer children. We’ve climbed the highest peak in the solar system accessible to us, that’s all. Be happy, man!"

"Reason is our guide, but the eye is its most trusted counselor."

"There are no uninteresting fates, and each man takes away the universe when he dies."

"That was practically blasphemy, asking Gordon for an explanation, frail octogenarian Gordon. Demanding an explanation after Gordon had made it very clear that his word was the truth. But no, in this room that was the birthplace of the unified field theory, this was not sacrilege. Both men were subject to the same law, which was greater than both of them, and that law made it necessary for Gordon to offer substantiating proof. He could not violate it, or else science would turn into religion, and he into its high priest."

"The professor was lost in thought. He was disturbed and worried, but proud that he was behaving like a true scientist: he wasn’t losing his head, or panicking, or believing in miracles."

"“I’m not saying that you don’t exist. You exist falsely.” “But I’m flying!” “That’s the point. A man can’t fly on his own. That would be a miracle. People with little grounding in physics are apt to believe anything, but we know that there is no place for miracles in nature.”"

"“What is the aim of science?” “What?” “Man’s happiness. If science doesn’t make men happier, what good is it? Knowledge is power, a weapon, and if the scientist doesn’t care where it’s aimed, what makes him different from a mercenary soldier?”"

"There is one basic fact that holds for all living things. Evil for any form of life is anything that hinders or threatens its existence; good is anything that promotes it. It’s that way everywhere, under every sun. It’s as obvious as two times two, because otherwise, if the opposite were true, life would be dooming itself to destruction. No civilization can change the criteria for good and evil without suffering for it."

"When the mind tries to guess the trajectory of a future moral act and concentrates too strenuously on contradictory concepts, the concepts themselves become unclear, because every concept is as deep-rooted and murky in its beginnings as the reality of life that gave rise to it. And the mind falters, determination slips away, and everything seems confused and wrong. That’s how thinking can sometimes destroy determination."

"Here, now, in the deep Middle Ages, all this served as a safety valve. People experienced the illusion of being at one with themselves, with others, with that mystical being that was there in the church, watching over them and preserving them, chiding and blessing, enlightening and repressing, uplifting and reconciling. A completely different, anxiety-ridden emotional state, and an understandable, but repellent, spiritual world."

"Just try telling a teenager that he’s a conformist. Ha! It’s safer to tweak a tiger’s whiskers. Yet who’s most influenced by fads and fashions? Who is the easiest to turn into a raging mob? The teenager."

"We all love mysteries in books and hate them in life. I’m no exception. After all, the reason we love mysteries in books is that the secret is revealed on the last page."

"“In traveling to the past, you can either appear in a predetermined point in space or in a predetermined point in time. In principle, it is impossible to do both simultaneously.” (Fundamental Temporalics, A.D. 2023)"

"He’s not a nut. His presence, it seems, really does stimulate the creative capabilities. All right. So what? For millions of people, that’s what you would call a profession. Teachers do not produce anything of material or intellectual value themselves. They transmit knowledge, and most important, stimulate the mental and moral growth of children—real teachers, of course. That is the great meaning of their profession, to disseminate their thoughts and actions in such a way that they interweave like a golden thread in someone else’s life and then come alive unrecognized in the discoveries and achievements of the future—a profession of utmost importance for society."

"Life is full of situations cut short, unfinished observations, everything that doesn’t fit in the parameters of a story that would make sense to strangers. We keep them to ourselves and we carry them away with us."

"I’ve already spotted a few more familiar faces. Apparently this crisis is the social event of the season."

"People always think differently of someone who’s been in an armed conflict. Even if she never picked up a weapon. She still picked a side."

"I step into one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve witnessed lots of incredible things. My uncomfortably long and monotonous outer space travels do get me into visual range of some of the most vivid astronomical wonders in the Solar System: Saturn’s rings, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, any number of comets shedding their icy mass in huge glowing tails. But nothing compares to seeing Planet Earth from space."

"She squints at me. “Since when do you care about regulations?” “Since they started helping me win arguments like this.”"

"It’s like we’re doing a little dance. A very poorly choreographed, very violent dance, with dangerous chemicals and bullets as props."

"“How does this organization even function?” I say. “Lasher isn’t talking to you, we lost pretty much all of Intel last year, and State’s keeping secrets from everyone—” “This is a spy agency,” Morris says. “We’re basically state-sponsored professional liars.” I frown. “It sounds pretty unsavory when you put it like that.” “It’s the truth. We do secret things every day of the week and twice on Sundays, and we can’t talk about most of those things. You either learn to live with it, or you find a new job.”"

"“You said Gryphon wants to be friends,” Paul says. “What’s more friendly than a common enemy?”"

"Hong doesn’t say anything. I can’t decide whether he’s being politely discreet or annoyingly neutral."

"There’s nothing like pulling rank in the middle of a crisis to make people dislike you."

"I’d just like us to consider all the possibilities. Especially the ones that involve me being an assassination target."

"Rumblings on Mount Olympus don’t affect the price of feta cheese in the agora."

"Paul shakes his head. “Please tell me how much longer you would like to complain about this before I can leave and get back to work.”"

"“Heels and Lunar gravity don’t really mix well.”"

"Of course, Jessica and I have already wandered pretty far from our original mission: what should have been a simple info buy has turned into the craziest road trip of all time, with a side of dysfunctional family reunion."

"“It’s not personal, Kangaroo,” Alisa says. “It’s a little hard not to take it personally when someone clones you.”"

"I don’t know how long I can keep lying to someone I want to love."

"Finding the stupidest possible thing to say, that’s my other superpower."

"That’s what happens when you ask for obedience without granting trust. Zealots need to be micromanaged."

"When you put enough secrets into play, they’re going to start colliding with each other."

"No aliens yet, but it’s amazing how paranoid some people can get when you pay them to think up worst-case scenarios."

"There’s another important lesson here: If something seems weird, it’s probably even weirder than you think. The universe is really, really, really weird, guys."

"“Are we done here?” I ask. “I can come back later if you want to yell at me some more.”"

"This is not some random misfortune we’re fighting. This is evil. And evil is predictable."

"Paul’s sense of humor is more like a humor singularity, from which nothing funny can escape."

"Did I say this was a bad idea? I was wrong. This is probably the worst idea ever. On the bright side, I guess that makes it a new personal record."

"“Lasher thought you should know,” Oliver says. “Lasher,” I say, “ is a deceitful, two-faced, manipulative bastard.” Oliver frowns. “And this is somehow news to you?”"

"Which, again, is very unlikely and would seem pretty ridiculous to any normal person, but as events keep reminding me: I don’t deal with normal people."