Science Fiction Authors

"“We are forever trying to sell science because somebody somewhere will get a better toothbrush,” she grumbled. “Whatever happened to sheer curiosity?”"

"Emily had not been trained as a scientist, so she tended to draw conclusions based on emotional need rather than on evidence."

"Truth is like nudity: It is on occasion indispensable, but it is dangerous and should not be displayed openly. It is truth that gives life its grandeur, but the polite fictions that make it bearable."

"He was a good salesman, which was to say he could look people directly in the eye while making the most preposterous claims."

"Starships, of course, have few limitations with regard to design, the prime specification being simply that they not disintegrate during acceleration or course change."

"The belief that society was in decline was a permanent characteristic of every era. People always believed they lived in a crumbling world. They themselves were of course okay, but everyone around them was headed downhill."

"Those who rise to the top of organizations, who live to direct others, to wield power, are inevitably afflicted by weak egos, by a need to prove themselves. This explains why they are so easily frightened and so easily manipulated. And why they are so dangerous."

"If you’ll forgive me, sir, physics is not politics. You can’t make things happen by trying harder."

"Come on, Harold. People like us can always find experts to tell us what we want to hear. It’s the biggest problem we have. Everybody lies to us because they want things from us."

"Charlie was not a believer. He did not expect to be called to account and assigned a score for what he had done or left undone. His parents had believed in a mechanical world, a place of evolving hardware and software, no deities need apply. We just haven’t figured it all out yet, his father was fond of saying. Things get more complex and we don’t know why. But that doesn’t mean we have to ascribe it to divine providence."

"Politics was a struggle for power, in its purest and simplest terms. If the voters were lucky, the winner would go on to improve their lot, because he would need their votes next time. Or because he enjoyed being popular. But issues were irrelevant. Always had been, probably. Once the age of mass communications arrived, presidents became entertainers, celebrities, if they were smart. FDR used his fireside chats; Kennedy had allowed spontaneous questions at press conferences, relying on wit and charm. Reagan knew from the films exactly how a president should behave, and he had exactly enough acting talent to bring it off. In that sense, he was the first modern president."

"For Rick, it was a clear demonstration of what the game was really about. The media often maintained that campaigns weren’t substantive. But the media didn’t understand about electioneering. When they complained that issues were seldom discussed, that the debate got too personal, that in the end a fog of obfuscation was thrown over everything, they were missing the point: An election is an art form. Its purpose is not to illuminate the issues of the day, but to box in an opponent. To watch him try to wriggle free of charges and innuendo."

"It was housed in one of those garish ultramodern steel and glass abstract buildings, designed to demonstrate a kind of mathematical flow but which really only succeeded in marring the landscape."

"Like his father, he believed the universe a clockwork mechanism; and if there was a clockmaker, he’d hidden himself too well and had therefore no justifiable complaint with unbelievers."

"As a rule, Evelyn disapproved of politicians. They tended to break down into two categories: the completely unprincipled, who comprised the vast majority; and those who lived by their principles no matter who suffered."

"New worlds are always hard on old ideas."

"Cities have a social utility, if only as places to get away from."

"We know that when change comes, no one is more adamant in holding on to the past than those in power. They know change is inevitable, but they would, if they could, parcel it out in measured pieces. Grain for chickens."

"A man without money is a bow without an arrow."

"But the old man had provided his kids with one priceless gift: He’d encouraged them to read, and he didn’t bother too much about the content, subscribing to the theory that good books ultimately speak for themselves."

"When do we reach a point where people become responsible for their own actions?"

"“Most of my business comes from picking up the pieces when people get things wrong.” She grinned. “I’ll never lack for work.”"

"Lasker mouthed, “Trust him,” and Max sighed. Trust a lawyer? It flew in the face of his most cherished principles."

"Never confuse perfection with production. People who don’t make mistakes aren’t doing anything."

"Ev was a careful man, a model of caution. He took pride in not committing to a view until all the facts were in. Which meant, of course, that he was never quite on board. Or in opposition."

"He expected to have only one clear shot at the assorted joys of living, and he had no intention of risking it to meet someone else’s misconceived expectations."

"Max was the exception. He had no taste for military life or for the prospect of getting shot at. His father, Colonel Maxwell E. Collingwood, USAF (retired), to his credit, tried to hide his disappointment in his only son. But it was there nonetheless, and Max had, on more than one occasion, overheard him wondering aloud to Max’s mother whether there was anything at all to genetics."

"He was usually easygoing, one of those guys with little respect for authority because of a conviction that people in charge tend to do stupid things."

"At night the sea is very loud, And voices ride the tide. At another time, in another place, Beneath the silent moon, We laughed together."

"If you want data to survive, carve it in rock."

"What would happen is that people like Geroge and Alyx would grow old and die chasing a dream. Although there were probably worse things to do with one’s life."

"So long as you believe in some truth you do not believe in yourself. You are a servant. A man of faith."

"The man was either foolish or fearless. Assuming there was a difference."

"“One should always be skeptical. That’s always been our problem. We have too many believers.” “Believers in what?” “In everything.”"

"Mac continued to write scathing commentary on assorted hypocrisies in high places and low, without which hypocrisies, he cheerfully conceded, civilized life would be impossible."

"Few of the virtues are really useful. Fidelity leads to lost opportunity, truth-telling to injured feelings, charity to additional solicitations. The least productive, and possibly the most overrated, is faith. The faithful deny reason, close their minds to the evidence of their senses, and remain unfailingly optimistic in the face of disaster. They inevitably get just what they deserve."

"“Sometimes,” he said, “I think life is just one long series of blown opportunities.”"

"Tides are like politics. They come and go with a great deal of fuss and noise, but inevitably they leave the beach just as they found it. On those few occasions when major change does occur, it is rarely good news."

"He took particular delight in neutralizing those who desperately needed to be neutralized, those overblown, self-important, arrogant half-wits who were always running about dictating behavior, morals, and theology to everyone else. And he never looked back."

"Faith has its price. When misfortune strikes the true believer, he assumes he has done something to deserve punishment, but isn’t quite certain what. The realist, recognizing that he lives in a Darwinian universe, is simply grateful to have made it to another sunset."

"Throughout our long and sorry history it has been men who supposed themselves to be exemplars of integrity who have done all the damage. Every crusade, whether for decent literary standards or to cover women’s bodies or to free the holy land, had been launched, endorsed, and enthusiastically perpetrated by men of character."

"(He remarked) that anyone who truly wished to develop tolerance toward other human beings should start by casting aside any and all religious affiliation. When challenged by one of the other guests, he had asked innocently whether anyone could name a single person put to death or driven from his home by an atheist over theological matters."

"During his sixty-odd years, he had found there were as many louts in the patrician classes as there were ignoramuses farther down the social spectrum."

"The only people he knew of who would have leveled material advantage so that no one had any were of course those who had none to start with."

"The impending collision out there somewhere in the great dark between a gas giant and a world very much like our own has some parallels to the eternal collision between religion and common sense. One is bloated and full of gas, and the other is measurable and solid. One engulfs everything around it, and the other simply provides a place to stand. One is a rogue destroyer that has come in out of the night, and the other is a warm well-lighted place vulnerable to the sainted mobs."

"Maybe the universe doesn’t approve of places like New York."

"Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters."

"The problem is that too often the only people who can act don’t want change. Power doesn’t so much corrupt as it breeds conservatism."

"He objected on principle to the powerful."

"He would make a good manager, but he had a little too much integrity to survive in a top job."