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They could all know now if they wanted, but they are too embarrassed. Rolth, for three thousand years everyone has tried to find a word to differentiate men from other animals; some of the ancients called him the laughing animal, some the moral animal. Well, I wonder if he isn’t the embarrassed animal.

— Samuel R. Delany City of a Thousand Suns (1965)

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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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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.