491 quotes
“The truth of a proposition has little or nothing to do with its psychodynamics. The notion that ‘truth will prevail’ is merely a pious wish; history doesn’t show it.”
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
“People have a funny habit of taking as ‘natural’ whatever they are used to—but there hasn’t been any ‘natural’ environment, the way they mean it, since men climbed down out of trees.”
Farmer in the Sky (1950)
What good is the race of man? Monkeys, he thought, monkeys with a spot of poetry in them, cluttering and wasting a second-string planet near a third-string star. But sometimes they finish in style.
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
For vice has this defect; it cannot be truly intelligent. Its very motives are its weakness.
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries — but it is a force stronger than crime.
This I Believe: Our Noble, Essential Decency (1952)
Friday, don’t despise assassins indiscriminately. As with any tool, merit or demerit lies in how it is used.
Friday (1982)
I called after him but he just kept going. Clark is not hard of hearing but he can be very hard of listening.
Podkayne of Mars (1963)
I don’t believe in luck, Sam. Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.
The Puppet Masters (1951)
“If you know any prayers, better say them.”
Sam shook his arm. “It’s not time to pray; it’s time to get busy.”
Off the Main Sequence (2005)
Such is my thesis, that the licensing of weapons is subversive of liberty and self-defeating in its pious purpose.
Grumbles from the Grave (1989)
Cut it out. If there is anything stupider that flogging yourself over something you can’t help, I’ve yet to meet it.
Tunnel in the Sky (1955)
No government has yet been able to repeal natural laws, though they keep trying.
Farnham's Freehold (1964)
No philosopher allows his opinions to be swayed by facts—he would be kicked out of his guild. Theologians, the lot of them.
The Number of the Beast (1980)
Males are conservative about sex, especially those who think they are not.
To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)
Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.
Time Enough for Love (1973)
Population pressure works much like a rising river. You can put up dikes or levees, but the day comes when the river has to go somewhere.
To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)
Don’t worry about it. There is less here than meets the eye.
The Number of the Beast (1980)
Eventually I learned that the Church is run solely for the benefit of the priesthood, not for the good of our people. But I learned it too late.
To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)
What we think of as ‘Physical beauty’ is almost certainly a tag for a complex of useful survival characteristics. Smartness—intelligence—among them.
I Will Fear No Evil (1970)
We lived like that “Happy Family“ you sometimes see in traveling zoos: a lion caged with a lamb. It is a startling exhibit but the lamb has to be replaced frequently.
Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)