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We know that when change comes, no one is more adamant in holding on to the past than those in power. They know change is inevitable, but they would, if they could, parcel it out in measured pieces. Grain for chickens.

— Jack McDevitt Ancient Shores (1996)

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More quotes by Jack McDevitt

Defend your opinion only if it can be shown to be true, not because it is your opinion.

Omega (2003)

If you're paying attention to your wardrobe, Rudy believed, your mind isn’t sufficiently occupied.

Cauldron (2007)

He would make a good manager, but he had a little too much integrity to survive in a top job.

The Engines of God (1994)

“I can’t imagine,” said Dupre, “a better way to unnerve people than to tell them there’s no cause for alarm.”

The Hercules Text (1986)

Politicians always seemed to be willing to sacrifice the general welfare to win votes.

The Hercules Text (1986)

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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: Jack McDevitt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.