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Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

— Larry Niven Misattributed

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Source, in full

Anonymous saying, this is an inversion of the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It has been attributed to Niven, and even called "Niven's Law" by some, and to Terry Pratchett by others, but without any citation of an original source in either case, and the earliest occurrence yet located is in Keystone Folklore (1984) by the Pennsylvania Folklore Society.

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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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Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time.

Mircea Eliade Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967)

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Thomas Jefferson

The superior man loves his soul; the inferior man loves his property.

Confucius

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.