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That was the universe: you could beat it once, you could float a message in a bottle across half of eternity, but the universe would always find a way to have the last laugh.

— Alastair Reynolds Pushing Ice (2005)

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Space

More quotes by Alastair Reynolds

There’s nothing like a stupid, accidental death to remind you of the supreme futility of everything.

Belladonna Nights and Other Stories (2021)

Ghosts are not the souls of the dead, but the souls of people written out of history when history changes.

Deep Navigation (2010)

You are that rarest of creatures: a man with the wisdom to see beyond his own time.

The Prefect (2007)

Truth is truth, no matter who else believes it.

Troika (2010)

I’ll argue to the death against stupid legislation, but some rules exist for a reason.

On the Steel Breeze (2013)

All Alastair Reynolds quotes →

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

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