9 quotes
All religions grew from human dread of death, reflected Travec—the brassier the claims for afterlife, the more popular the creed.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
It is as well that the amok has no weapons other than his knife. Otherwise he would kill twenty where now he kills one.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
The repair system exists to keep the machinery operating but no provision had been made to repair the repair system.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
“Why does a chicken cross a road?”
“Presumably the motivations and restraints in reference to the prospective action settle into an equilibrium which prompts the motion rather than the stasis.”
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
“No,” said Travec, “religions, cults, rituals—forms of insanity—don’t interest me.”
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
You’re an idealist. The idealists are always the revolutionaries, the cat’s-paws. Then the realists consolidate, compromise and liquidate the opposition.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
Mardien sat glaring on the floor and Travec caught a glimpse of a wild, primordial beast. It was the swiftest of visions and he thought what marvelous disguises were beauty and civilization.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
“Crime occurs when the social structure is in itself inattentive and unwieldy,” she added offhandedly, “when the culture provides no scope for fulfillment.”
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)
His decision was preordained, and derived from a perverse quirk in his mentality. At his deepest, most essential level, Hack knew himself for an insipid mediocrity, of no intellectual distinction and no particular competence in any direction. This was an insight so shocking that Hack never allowed it past the threshold of consciousness, and he conducted himself as if the reverse were true.
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986)