163 quotes
The desire to find something could provoke what she called “wantum mechanics,” fishing a result out of nothing but noise.
Cosm (1998)
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
The Sunborn (2005)
She always dressed well, but he recognized the signs of insecurity; certitude was inversely proportional to the amount of makeup.
Artifact (1985)
Engineers never liked the unexplained, whereas physicists lived for it.
Cosm (1998)
Every boy knows he is immortal, but his parents, they are not so sure.
Against Infinity (1983)
Somehow to them, the press was always the judge of things scientific.
Timescape (1980)
The past was a jigsaw puzzle and you never had all the pieces.
Artifact (1985)
But the answers come when they will, one piece at a time.
In Alien Flesh (1986)
Definitions, her grandmother once said, had to be like a fat man’s belt—big enough to cover the subject but elastic enough to allow for change.
The Sunborn (2005)
The role of boredom in human history is underrated.
In Alien Flesh (1986)
Talkers never acted when they could talk.
In Alien Flesh (1986)
All right, he thought, so the details were not perfect. But maybe, in a sense, that was part of the magic, too.
Timescape (1980)
When you know nothing, you are free to hope.
Beyond Infinity (2004)
Given a choice between existential despair and rapt religious fervor, her crowd chose marijuana.
Cosm (1998)
Media bloomed with florid discussions between completely uninformed people about every detail imaginable.
The Martian Race (1999)
She needed some fresh illumination, all right, but not the kind that comes through the west window of a church.
Cosm (1998)
Ours is not to reason why, ours is to measure and report—the experimenter’s credo.
Cosm (1998)
But then, growing up was not supposed to be easy. One Mom remarked offhandedly, “It’s the toughest work you’ll ever do.”
Beyond Infinity (2004)
You need friends to keep you on your feet, and enemies to keep you on your toes.
Beyond Infinity (2004)
Boundaries got redrawn at the point of a sword, and the legal frame followed.
The Man Who Sold The Stars (2013)