19 quotes
To crave power is to be ruled by madness.
Gandalara Cycle (1981)
One of the troubles with the world is that so few laymen take an interest in science.
Lord Darcy (1964)
The plans of men do not necessarily coincide with those of the Universe.
Lord Darcy (1964)
No, I had kept an open mind about reincarnation—in spite of those people, not because of them.
Gandalara Cycle (1981)
In general he doesn’t know any more about magic than an ostrich knows about icebergs.
Lord Darcy (1964)
Miss Thompson may be off her trolley, but the others haven’t even got any tracks.
Brain Twister (1962)
Are you an accessory to this imbecilic tomfoolery?
Lord Darcy (1964)
I have always contended that the true connoisseur is to be pitied, for he has trained his taste to such perfection that he enjoys almost nothing.
Lord Darcy (1964)
I’m not a hard man to convince. And when I see the truth, I’m the first one to admit it, even if it makes me look like a nut.
Brain Twister (1962)
What does it matter? I asked myself. If you’re writing a fairy tale, don’t quibble over talking bears.
Gandalara Cycle (1981)
Amidst all the hubbub, wine and beer crossed the bar in one direction, while copper and silver crossed it in the other, making everyone happy on both sides.
Lord Darcy (1964)
It had been one of those warm late spring days when no air moves and nothing else wants to. Not oppressively hot—just warm enough to enervate and to cause attacks of acute vernal inertia.
Lord Darcy (1964)
There were people, Malone had always understood, who bounced out of their beds and greeted each new day with a smile. It didn’t sound possible, but then again there were some pretty strange people.
Brain Twister (1962)
Master Sean O’Lochlainn had always been partial to mules. “The mule,” he was fond of saying, “is as much smarter than a horse as a raven is smarter than a falcon. Neither a raven nor a mule will go charging into combat just because some human tells him to.”
Lord Darcy (1964)
“You intend to pray for answers to those questions, my lord?”
“That, yes. But I have found that the best way to ask God about questions like these is to go out and dig up the data yourself.”
Lord Darcy (1964)
All that was necessary was to use one’s imagination to see how it might have happened, and then check the evidence to see if it did happen that way. The final step is to check the evidence to make sure it could not have happened any other way.
Lord Darcy (1964)
Any group which makes a claim to infallibility must be very careful not to make any mistakes, and the mistakes that will inevitably occur must be kept secret or explained away—by lies, subterfuges and distortions. And that will eventually cause the collapse of the entire edifice.
Lord Darcy (1964)
Philosophically, Nirvana and the Final Blackout were equally unappealing to me. Reincarnation—well, it seemed like wishful thinking to me. The defining factor for my entire attitude toward an afterlife of any kind was the total absence of objective evidence.
Gandalara Cycle (1981)
The “remembered” lives had always been exciting and ended in murder, execution, or dramatic suicide. Not one of them had been a potato farmer who died quietly in his bed after seventy years of monotonous hard work. I had heard the argument that only violent personalities survived intact, but I frankly saw more late-night television than actual memory in the “past lives” I heard retold.
Gandalara Cycle (1981)