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There are three types of actions: purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous. Characters, to be immediate and apprehensible, must be presented by all three.

— Samuel R. Delany Nova (1968)

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More quotes by Samuel R. Delany

Oh, for the rebirth of an educational system where understanding was an essential part of knowledge.

Nova (1968)

“As time progresses,” Lump stated, “people learn. That’s the only hope.”

Empire Star (1966)

Bear in mind that the novel—no matter how intimate, psychological, or subjective—is always a historical projection of its own time.

Nova (1968)

What real power can buy, of course, is anonymity.

Neveryóna (1983)

And who’s to say where life ceases and theater begins—

Triton (1976)

All Samuel R. Delany quotes →

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Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Étienne de La Boétie Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)

The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.

George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman (1903)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

Horace Mann Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann (1867)

Attribution

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