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“It’s a nitwit idea.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nitwit ideas are for emergencies. You use them when you’ve got nothing else to try. If they work, they go in the Book. Otherwise you follow the Book, which is largely a collection of nitwit ideas that worked.”

— Larry Niven The Mote in God's Eye (1974)

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More quotes by Larry Niven

The moral of this story is, anything you don’t understand is dangerous until you do understand it.

Neutron Star (1968)

Tell them the universe is too complicated a toy for a sensibly cautious being to play with.

Ringworld (1970)

The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.

Ringworld (1970)

The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times.

Scatterbrain (2003)

Everything starts as somebody's daydream.

All Larry Niven quotes →

Attribution

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