44 quotes
If you asked him, he would say the only connection between free will and religion in his life was the fact that he hadn’t set foot in a synagogue since he turned eighteen.
The Accidental Time Machine (2007)
She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind. Is that a difference between men and women or between you and me?”
“I think it’s a difference between you and merely sane people.”
Forever Peace (1997)
A person who thinks he learns science from science fiction is like one who thinks he learns history from historical novels, and he deserves what he gets.
Infinite Dreams (1978)
“That’s an improvement?”
“Who can say? But that’s revolution: throw the old set of bastards out and install your own set. At least it’ll be different.”
Infinite Dreams (1978)
“You were a Jesuit?”
“Franciscan. We run a close second in being pains in the ass.”
Forever Peace (1997)
I have always valued quiet, and the eternity of it that I face is no more dreadful than the eternity of quiet that preceded my birth.
For White Hill (1995)
I never found anyone else and I don’t want anyone else. I don’t care whether you’re ninety years old or thirty. If I can’t be your lover, I’ll be your nurse.
The Forever War (1974)
It was full of jargon, charts and the kind of vague mathematics that social scientists admire.
Infinite Dreams (1978)
It was an ideological war for some—the defenders of democracy versus the rebel strong-arm charismatic leaders. Or the capitalist land-grabbers versus the protectors of the people, take your pick.
Forever Peace (1997)
It was so much more complicated than it had to be, but the changeling had noted that this was true of every human biological function that wasn’t involuntary.
Camouflage (2004)
Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there...the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.
The Forever War (1974)
The more leaves, the more Tree.
Forever Free (1999)
It was making me a little queasy. Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop.
The Forever War (1974)
A good writer remembered everything and then forgot it when he sat down to write, and reinvented it so the writing would be more real than the memory. Experience was important, but imagination was more important.
The Hemingway Hoax (1990)
We did it with their government’s foreknowledge and permission, of course—and there were no civilian casualties, equally of course. Once they’re dead they’re rebels.
Forever Peace (1997)
My own religion, if you can call it that, had changed in its fundamental premise, but not its basic assertion: I’d always told religious friends that there may or may not be a God, but if there is one, I wouldn’t want to have him over for dinner. I’ll stand by that last part.
Forever Free (1999)
Men started to geoform the earth in the middle of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, a lot of the early work was done by people who failed to see the earth as a closed set of mutually interrelated systems.
Mindbridge (1976)
Most aliens in science fiction aren’t truly alien, and that’s not because science fiction writers lack imagination, but because the purpose of an alien in a story is usually to provide a meaningful distortion of human nature.
Infinite Dreams (1978)
One class of crackpots felt that Harrison had betrayed humanity, giving conquering hordes of aliens a road map back to Earth. The details of what they would do to us, and why, provided an interesting refraction of the individual crackpot’s problems.
Infinite Dreams (1978)
CAROL: You don’t care for the music?
JACQUE: Music! It’s just a gimmick to sell lutes and flutes.
Mindbridge (1976)