Larry Niven

"Think of it as evolution in action."

"God was knocking, and he wanted in bad."

"Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn."

"Everything starts as somebody's daydream."

"The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"

"The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times."

"Part of being a coward is wanting security."

"Do you know what it’s like to be suddenly poor and not know how to live poor?"

"There is no turning away from knowledge."

"“Do you believe in hunches?” “No.” “Neither do I. Except just this once.”"

"The moral of this story is, anything you don’t understand is dangerous until you do understand it."

"“Does it help you to know that you’ve ruined my day?” “It does, yes.”"

"I didn’t want to find her. Not now. Our bargain had been clear, and also inevitable; and there are advantages to sleeping alone. I’ll think of them in a moment."

"Just take my word for it, will you? Assume I’m a genius."

"Was he deadpan because he didn’t care anymore? How much boredom can you meet in three hundred years?"

"Any time seems long when you need to make a decision but can’t."

"But the horse ran on, daring Svetz with its eyes. How to describe such motion? Svetz had never seen ballet. He knew how machinery moved, and this wasn’t it. All he could think of was a man and a woman making love. Slippery-smooth rhythmic motion, absolute single-minded purpose, motion for the pleasure of motion. It was terrible in its beauty, the flight of the horse."

"Once the ocean teamed with life, Svetz thought. Now the continental shelf is as dead as the moon: nothing but bubble cities. Once this whole continent was all forest and living desert and fresh water. We cut down the trees and shot the animals and poisoned to the rivers and irrigated the deserts so that even the desert life died; and now there’s nothing left but the food yeast and us. We’ve forgotten so much about the past that we can’t separate legend from fact. We’ve wiped out most of the forms of life on earth in the last fifteen hundred years, and changed the composition of the air to the extent that we’d be afraid to change it back. I fear the unknown beasts of the past. I cannot breathe the air. I do not know the edible plants. I could not kill the animals for food. I do not know which would kill me. The earth’s past is as alien to me as another planet."

"There’s always another problem behind the one you just solved. Does that mean that you should stop solving problems?"

"For each human being there is an optimum ratio between change and stasis. Too little change, he grows bored. Too little stability, he panics and loses his ability to adapt."

"Drugs: “There’s no way to keep them from getting in. Anyone who wants drugs can get them. We make arrests where we can, and so what? Me, I’m betting on Darwin.” “How do you mean?” “The next generation won’t use drugs because they’ll be descended from people who had better sense.”"

"Talking to the Council would be like shouting obscenities at a forest fire."

"“Do you like strange places and faraway people—or vice versa?” “Both.”"

"The trouble with sharing too many beds was that one’s chance of running into a really bad situation was improved almost to certainty."

"Presently she gave her considered opinion. “Idiots.” “No. They’re just like all of us: They want something for nothing.”"

"I had to grin. Morris was shocked and horrified. I’d shown him a brand new sin."

"A species that can’t develop spaceflight is no better than animals."

"When you trade among the stars, there is no repeat business."

"Stupidity is always a capital crime."

"The morning was blacker than the inside of a smoker’s lungs."

"There was this about him: he knew who I was, but he hadn’t remembered my name. Ron Cole had better things to think about than what name belonged with whom. A name was only a tag and a conversational gambit."

"I asked him, “Do you know the difference between nude and naked?” He shook his head. “Nude is artistic. Naked is defenseless.”"

"Anyone who says human nature can’t be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he’s got to define human nature—and he can’t."

"Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives."

"“That’s impossible. Isn’t it? Carlos?” Carlos’ mouth twisted. “Not if it’s being done.”"

"In a universe the size of ours almost anything that can happen, will."

"“Do you play games of chance?” “Emphatically yes. The process of living is a game of chance. To avoid chance is insanity.”"

"Gambling was safer than war. More fun, too. Best of all, it gave him better odds."

"I’d thought my way into this mess. I should be able to think my way out, shouldn’t I?"

"A sufficiently intelligent being will look about her, solve all questions, then cease activity."

"Ten thousand years wasn't enough...no lifetime was enough, unless you lived it in such a way as to make it enough."

"Time is a one-way street with no parking spaces. You just have to keep going."

"Writing is, therefore, both a form of compulsive behavior and, I frequently tell people, a self-induced form of mental illness. Those few writers who don’t start off by being a little nuts soon get that way as a direct result of their vocation."

"I knew it long ago: I’m a compulsive teacher, but I can’t teach. The godawful state of today’s education system isn’t what’s stopping me. I lack at least two of the essential qualifications. I cannot “suffer fools gladly.” The smartest of my pupils would get all my attention, and the rest would have to fend for themselves. And I can’t handle being interrupted. Writing is the answer. Whatever I have to teach, my students will select themselves by buying the book. And nobody interrupts a printed page."

"Nuclear is the safest power source we’ve got—with two exceptions, neither of which is being built. If some folk are terrified of unseen death by radiation, then let ’em deal with their own neuroses, instead of forcing us to stop building the atomic plants."

"It takes a lot of people to hold civilization together; some of us are only here to ask the right questions."

"In fantasy, more than in other forms of literature, the obligation is to teach something universally true about the human condition."

"Casual murder, casual suicide, casual crime. Why not? If alternate universes are a reality, then cause and effect are an illusion. The law of averages is a fraud. You can do anything, and one of you will, or did."

"“But there’s an old legend,” I said. “Once every hundred years the Los Angeles smog rolls away for a single night, leaving the air as clear as interstellar space. That way the gods can see if Los Angeles is still there. If it is, they roll the smog back so they won’t have to look at it.”"

"That's the thing about people who think they hate computers … What they really hate are lousy programmers."