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It isn’t possible to have equality. It’s been tried again and again in history, giving everybody a vote, and it’s always failed—always, in a few generations, the worse politicians drove out the better. Because by definition, half the people always have below-average intelligence; and the average is not high.

— Poul Anderson The Long Way Home (1955)

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More quotes by Poul Anderson

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

The Long Way Home (1955)

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)

All Poul Anderson quotes →

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.