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It seems that these men are primitive enough to have a marked tendency toward superstition—ascribing things they don’t understand to supernatural intervention.

— Hal Clement Assumption Unjustified (1946)

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Religion

More quotes by Hal Clement

What’s the use of a high school education if you can’t recall it when needed later on?

Mission of Gravity (1954)

No one likes to be watched constantly by someone he can’t see.

Mission of Gravity (1954)

Maybe we’ve been taking nova precautions for a red dwarf.

Mission of Gravity (1954)

I am resigned to living in a chess-type universe—few and simple rules, but infinite combinations of them. But it would be nice to know an answer sometime.

Hot Planet (1963)

If you want adventure, you made a mistake exploring space. The only space adventures I've heard of are second-hand stories built on guesswork; the people who really had them weren't around to tell about it.

Hot Planet (1963)

All Hal Clement quotes →

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

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