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For the ordinary man, instability—change—means dislocation, war, uncertainty, misery, and death.

— Poul Anderson The Long Way Home (1955)

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More quotes by Poul Anderson

Man’s duty in this life, he thought, is to choose the lesser evil.

The People of the Wind (1973)

“Destiny,” said John. “The ghastliest word a man can speak.”

The Corridors of Time (1965)

Time is the bridge that always burns behind us.

Men, whose span is cruelly short, rush nonetheless to death in their youth as to a maiden’s arms.

The Broken Sword (1954)

Hurry and hurry, autumn leaves hurrying on the rainy wind, snow hurrying out of the sky, life hurrying to death, gods hurrying to oblivion.

The Broken Sword (1954)

All Poul Anderson quotes →

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Change based on principle is progress. Constant change without principle becomes chaos.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

To say that the future will be different from the present is, to scientists, hopelessly self-evident.

Robert F. Kennedy

He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

Samuel Johnson The Idler (1758)

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. (Weil die Dinge sind, wie sie sind, werden die Dinge nicht so bleiben wie sie sind.)

Bertolt Brecht Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Poul Anderson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.