Skip to content

Actually, there are never motives behind actions. All actions are fixed. What we call motives evidently are rationalizations by the helpless observing consciousness, which is intelligent enough to smell an event coming—and, since it cannot avert the event, instead cooks up reasons for wanting it to happen...or ascribes it to the malice of God or man.

— James Blish The Quincunx of Time (1973)

Another quote →

More quotes by James Blish

Never assume that any fact is useless until it is so proven.

I suppose you burned the library—barbarians always do.

A Style in Treason (1970)

He wore the expression of a man who has heard all this before, and is not enjoying it any better the second time.

The Day After Judgment (1971)

One thing you learn fast in the munitions business is that it’s a very good idea to stay off battlefields.

The Day After Judgment (1971)

Sam was too good a scientist to let that hope creep into his hypothesizing.

Giants in the Earth (1952)

All James Blish quotes →

Attribution

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