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Vernor Vinge Quotes

1944–2024 United States

Vernor Vinge (October 2, 1944 – March 20, 2024) was a computer scientist and science fiction author, as well as a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics.

United States
Academics
Computer scientists
Educators
Mathematicians

Random Vernor Vinge quote

67 quotes

Quit crossing your fingers, Wim; the only thing that’ll ever save you from is the respect of educated men.

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (2001)

The hard facts are extraordinary, without adding superstitious mumbo-jumbo.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Funny how the least attempt at deception always seems to make life more complicated.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

Life is a green madness just now, trying to squeeze the last bit of warmth from the season.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

They’re very good at reaching nonsense conclusions from insufficient information.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

Interesting problem, pain. So helpful, so obnoxious.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

The more you realized what the stars really were, the more you realized what the universe must really be.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all—no one’s around to write horror stories.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

Wil wondered fleetingly if she might be psychopathic, and not merely young and naive.

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (2001)

“But see, your theory ‘explains’ all sorts of things without helping to do anything, much less providing tests for itself.”

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and least expensive manipulation of all.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

The old truths still hold: without a sustaining civilization, no isolated collection of ships and humans can rebuild the core of technology.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

There is a deepness in the sky, and it extends forever.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Politics may come and go, but Greed goes on forever.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

Politics may come and go, but trade goes on forever.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

I say, let’s learn more and then speculate.

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

Every state religion he’d ever seen had a core of hypocrisy. That was why he’d been against bringing “Hrala” ashore—he knew the priests would never accept their theology suddenly incarnate.

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (2001)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Vernor Vinge (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.