James Blish Quotes

1921–1975 United States

James Benjamin Blish (May 23, 1921 – July 30, 1975) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr.

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Random James Blish quote

34 quotes

Never assume that any fact is useless until it is so proven.

I suppose you burned the library—barbarians always do.

A Style in Treason (1970)

He wore the expression of a man who has heard all this before, and is not enjoying it any better the second time.

The Day After Judgment (1971)

One thing you learn fast in the munitions business is that it’s a very good idea to stay off battlefields.

The Day After Judgment (1971)

Sam was too good a scientist to let that hope creep into his hypothesizing.

Giants in the Earth (1952)

It isn’t every composer who can premier his own last opera posthumously.

A Work of Art (1956)

One death is as good as another, if death is what you are courting.

…And All the Stars a Stage (1971)

A common thief with a gun in his hand isn’t half as dangerous as an engineer with a stick of dynamite.

Black Easter (1968)

But now the shots began—not many, but one shot is a fusillade if there have been no shots before.

A Case of Conscience (1958)

Munitions and magic are circles that don’t intersect very effectively.

Black Easter (1968)

We often resort to something called Hilbert space, which is described as n-dimensional—it’s like modern sex, any number may be played with.

The Quincunx of Time (1973)

In his opinion, neither justice nor mercy were very closely related to love, let alone being identical with it—otherwise, why have three words instead of one? A metaphor is not a tautology.

A Style in Treason (1970)

We cannot count upon the secret being kept. It’s a fact of nature, and as somebody or other remarked long ago, Nature is a blabbermouth; ask the right question, and you’ll always get the answer.

The Quincunx of Time (1973)

The first thing a psychologist learns is to keep her mouth shut around laymen.

…And All the Stars a Stage (1971)

No exercise of will can make any of us other than what we are, or more than marginally better than who we are.

The Quincunx of Time (1973)

Now that I'm a free agent I mean to make my own choices, and explain them to nobody if that’s what pleases me.

A Case of Conscience (1958)

In retrospect, each of the steps toward this abyss seemed irrevocable, and yet they had all been so small!

A Case of Conscience (1958)

Martel still did not want to believe in it, but brute experience of it forced him to, whatever his preferences.

He had been greatly talented once, but the loss of gifted experimenters to administrative posts was the curse of all research organizations.

Black Easter (1968)

Telepathy and intelligence appear to be incompatible from the evolutionary point of view—if you’ve got one, you don’t seem to need the other, and they may even be evolutionary enemies.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: James Blish (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.