115 quotes
We are agreed that before we kill each other we should better serve mankind by killing those who order us to kill each other.
The Stone That Never Came Down (1973)
The sound of shutters going up around her mind, armored against anything short of a nuke, was very nearly audible in the room.
The Jagged Orbit (1969)
We’ve been amazingly lucky, which is another way of saying we’ve kept our eyes and minds open and responded when something turned up.
Total Eclipse (1974)
I don’t believe you can cow people into loyalty. Subservience, maybe. But then you must always trust the retainer who guards your back.
The Emperor Who Had Never Seen a Dragon (1995)
Colin felt a shiver pass down his spine. What man, granted total power, could refrain from using it? And would not his first target inevitably be his fellow men?
Entry to Elsewhen (1972)
If you so much as touch him, I’ll have to smash every bone in your body—twice, to make sure I didn’t miss any the first time. I don’t recommend the experience.
You’ll Take the High Road (1973)
—Why can I never visualize things turning out better as clearly as I can visualize the catastrophes I scraped past by a hair? “Everything for the best in the best of all possible worlds!” Hah!
Quicksand (1967)
The screen was a polychrome swirl, like a rainbow that had been through an electric blender.
Timescoop (1969)
I never thought of asking anyone to do it for me. Something’s wrong with me. In a time of trouble should people not be able to ask help without feeling demeaned?
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
We’ve always cared more about property rights than human rights in this country. You should know that.
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I know people who can't even learn from what happened this morning. Hegel must have been taking the long view.
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Independence has limits. But dependence has, too. I want to set some for myself, that’s all.
The Whole Man (1964)
He was wondering what society would have been like if we’d socialised cannabis instead of dangerous drugs like alcohol and religion.
The Stone That Never Came Down (1973)
“I think,” Chad grunted, “that if he [Shalmaneser, the computer] really is intelligent nobody will recognise the fact. Because we aren’t.”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
It was a great image, especially for areas where there was strong Muslim influence and the concomitant view prevailed that women had no souls.
The Jagged Orbit (1969)
I love the place, and when they get love down to a bunch of factors you can analyse with a computer there’ll be nothing left of whatever makes it worth being human!
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
You don’t have to know everything. You simply need to know where to find it when necessary.
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Get me a drink of water, please, and something to quiet my belly. It’s rumbling so much I can’t hear myself think.
The Tides of Time (1984)
The theory was and always had been: this is the thing the solid citizen has no need to worry about. Important, later all-important question: what about the hollow citizen?
The Shockwave Rider (1975)
“Ah, go to hell!”
“That’s a remarkably Christian attitude, Donald. Both meaningless and barbaric.”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)