185 quotes
10) Anarchy is the least stable of social structures.
In certain video games, it is impossible to win. All you can do is survive as long as you can, piling up points, until you are eventually dragged down and killed.
Much like life itself?
The California Voodoo Game (1992)
“Ah…if it’s not a glitch, and Welles seems certain that it’s not a glitch, then…what is it?”
“A glitch. People who say that they have all the bugs usually haven’t turned over enough rocks.”
The Barsoom Project (1989)
You’re insane. Imagine my amazement.
A World Out of Time (1976)
Must have been bad when the gods were alive, though. They might grant your prayer, they might grant your enemy’s, but they’d certainly grant their own. A god’s wishes wouldn’t have anything to do with what human beings wanted.
The Magic Goes Away (1976)
I had to grin. Morris was shocked and horrified. I’d shown him a brand new sin.
A Hole in Space (1974)
I’m being chauvinistic, he told himself. I can’t judge an alien’s sanity by Belt standards, can I? His lip curled. Sure I can. That ship is badly designed.
Protector (1973)
I didn’t want to find her. Not now. Our bargain had been clear, and also inevitable; and there are advantages to sleeping alone. I’ll think of them in a moment.
Neutron Star (1968)
Yes, the bleeding heart was something else again. … A signature.
A thrint was master over every intelligent beast. This was the Powergiver’s primal decree, made before he made the stars. So said all of the twelve thrintun religions, though they fought insanely over other matters.
World of Ptavvs (1966)
Writing is, therefore, both a form of compulsive behavior and, I frequently tell people, a self-induced form of mental illness. Those few writers who don’t start off by being a little nuts soon get that way as a direct result of their vocation.
N-Space (1990)
He’s a computer. Perfect memory, rigid logic, no judgment. I forgot. I talked to him like a human being, and now—
A World Out of Time (1976)
“I copied it.”
“Sure you did, joker, but they drew what they thought you wanted and you copied what you thought you saw—”
Destiny's Road (1997)
God was knocking, and he wanted in bad.
7) Any damn fool can predict the past.
Fear is the brother of hate.
Ringworld (1970)
The majority is always sane.
Ringworld (1970)
1a) Never throw shit at an armed man.
1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
19) Think before you make the coward's choice. Old age is not for sissies.
Nuclear is the safest power source we’ve got—with two exceptions, neither of which is being built. If some folk are terrified of unseen death by radiation, then let ’em deal with their own neuroses, instead of forcing us to stop building the atomic plants.
N-Space (1990)