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Once you know about critics, you know about literature. Literature is whatever survives the critics.

— Larry Niven Playgrounds of the Mind (1991)

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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.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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.