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Quotes from A Deepness in the Sky — Vernor Vinge

1944–2024 United States

← All quotes by Vernor Vinge

26 quotes

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)

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

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

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)

“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)

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 trade goes on forever.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Yes, we did quite well. But then, telling people what they want to believe is an easy job.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

“Do you think she really believes what she’s saying?”
“Sure she believes it. That’s what makes her so funny.”

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Technical people don’t make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Yet, even with the greatest care, a technological civilization carried the seeds of its own destruction. Sooner or later, it ossified and politics carried it into a fall.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Viki was awed by all the incredible quackery. Daddy thought such things were amusing—“like religion but not so deadly.”

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

So high, so low, so many things to know.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Being alone was something he was very good at. There was so much to learn.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

There was an old Qeng Ho saying, “You know you’ve stayed too long when you start using the locals’ calendar.”

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

There had been an era of ubiquitous law enforcement, and some kind of distributed terror.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

What do you do when your dream dies?

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Didn’t Underhill understand? All decent societies agreed on basic issues, things that meant the healthy survival of their people. Things might be changing, but it was self-serving nonsense to throw the rules overboard.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Attribution

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